The Pillar
by The Eighth Reign
Summary: Jiraiya decided that he needed to train Naruto to the best of his abilities. Using the same techniques he used for the Yondaime, and after 4 years of training has Naruto become the pillar that Konoha needs to lean on. I Do Not Own Naruto.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I do not own Naruto

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A battered man sat near a campfire, the dull glow illuminating his features, exploring his battle worn face. His eyes hide under his odd forehead protector, which had the kanji for oil upon it, were staring across the fire to a bloody body, wrapped in bandages. Ragged breathing filled the long silence as he watched the boy. The man had a white lion's mane that reached to the small of his back, and wore a green jacket with a red vest over it, and pants to match the jacket. His most distinctive characteristic were the red lines dropping of his face from his eyes, the lighting made it appear that they were bloody tear trails.

The attack happened so fast that neither of them had a chance to retaliate at first, as they were separated. It was astronomical odds that they ran into the certain people they were trying to hide from. At first the boy seemed like he would survive long enough for him to help save him.

He was wrong.

Deidara and Tobi were there names, he overheard them talking to themselves. He told the boy to try and stay near him no matter what, and those two Akatsuki knew exactly how to keep them separate from each other.

Tobi, the one with the mask, had fought him, and that man had a fighting style unlike any other he had seen before. The man wasn't fighting him as much as he was keeping the boy and himself separated. Deidara had tore apart the boy's defense, using his clay bombs. The bombs tore through his shadow clones, they were useless in this fight against explosion. It took more than one bomb though to take out the boy, as he had a will of steel, but the succession of bombs in the forms of small animals was more than enough to do the job.

And now the boy was lying across the fire from him. His body was mauled by the explosions, but thankfully to his tenant, he was healing, and would be fine by morning. And the boy would need it, because starting from tomorrow on, he was going to take his training more seriously. He needed to, for the boy's safety, during the boy's fight he realized that the boy was severely handicap when it came to nearly all forms of the arts of the ninja, besides stamina and being stubborn.

The man's ears perked. The boy's ragged breathing stopped. The man smiled, no more was he going to slack off as a sensei, he was going to make this boy live up to his name.

Jiraiya leaned back and smirked as he thought of all the training he could put Naruto through, as said boy let out a heavy snore.

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Naruto rolled over, and started drifting to the land of the living, before he decided that it wasn't worth the trouble. That was before he was assaulted by ice cold water hitting him in the face.

"GAH!!! What was that for!!" Naruto yelled at the culprit, still standing over him with a dripping bucket.

"Because today we start your training." Jiraiya said as he began to walk over to the campfire, which had a scrambled egg on a skillet that hung above the fire.

"What do ya mean ero-sennin? I thought you've been training me since we left Konoha." Naruto asked as he got out of bed and started making his way over to Jiraiya.

"First of all Naruto, I am now your sensei, and you will call me your sensei, and I haven't really taken your training seriously, the fight we had yesterday shed some light upon that." Jiraiya explained, as he handed the scrambled egg to Naruto. "Eat."

Naruto, not used to this type of Jiraiya that was very serious, unless he was talking about the Kyuubi, took the skillet with the egg, and started eating it, before he realized something. "Fight? There was a fight yesterday?" he asked, still oblivious to the bandages wrapped around his body.

Jiraiya looked at him and came upon the conclusion that the boy must of suffered a concussion. It was an ace of luck too, it was probably thanks to the Kyuubi that the boy woke up, instead of slept till he died. He sighed and realized that Naruto had no idea about the fight, so he had to think quick, to try and not worry him about the Akatsuki finding out where they were, but because Jiraiya used Gamabunta to help them travel a vast distance within a couple of hours, they should be relatively safe where they were now.

"Yeah, you pissed me off yesterday, badly, and I beat some sense into you." Jiraiya said, as he watched Naruto eat the rest of the egg. "Take off those bandages, you have to start your daily workout." Jiraiya told the boy, as he stood up and started walking towards the forest.

Naruto looked down at the bandages covering his body and realized that he must have received quite a beating yesterday to be fixed up like this and not remember it, and began removing the bandages.

Jiraiya was looking at trees that seemed to be about 2 feet in diameter, and slashing a select few that he must have liked with a kunai, before Naruto came over dressed and ready for the day.

"About time gaki," Jiraiya said, as he turned his attention to Naruto, "I want you to sprint around this campsite as fast as you can for 10 minutes, then jog for 2 minutes, and then go back to sprinting, do this for as long as you can before you fall to the ground or just can't go on."

Naruto's eyes got big, and his jaw hung open, this was the most brutal thing that ero-sennin has had him do so far. "WHAT!?" Naruto said as he looked at Jiraiya in disbelief.

"Naruto listen, I told you that I would train you, and I haven't really been doing that since we left Konoha, so I am going to take it serious until I feel that you are truly able to fight on equal ground with me." Jiraiya said, still staring Naruto in the eyes, keeping his attention. "Now get going, you will be done with that exercise quicker than you think you will be. It will get you moving faster than you do now." Jiraiya said as he turned back to the trees he was marking up.

Naruto looked at Jiraiya's back, and sighed angrily and mumbled under his breathe about stupid perverts before he took off at a sprint.

Jiraiya with his back towards Naruto smirked, as he knew that the boy would not last that long with such a taxing exercise. As he had just finished up marking up the certain trees he wanted he focused chakra to his fingertips and extended that past them quite a ways before cutting the base of the tree, and walking up to the top of the tree and cut it, making the tree about 15 feet tall. He continued to do this to all the trees he had marked before, and got them all cut down, and summoned a small army of shadow clones to help him start working on his training field. He then looked at Naruto and noticed that he was still sprinting, but the sprint was a fast run, but that was to be expected as he should be drastically slowing down sometime soon.

Jiraiya couldn't help but smile, remembering the other person he put through this type of training, he became the legendary Yondaime Hokage. Even with Naruto's beastly stamina, he wouldn't last long in this type of exhausting exercise.

Jiraiya watched Naruto with his last few laps around the campsite as his clones began putting the trees straight up into holes that they had dug in the ground. Even with his insane stamina Naruto eventually fell flat on his face, out of breathe and energy for now.

The toad sannin stood over the boy as his breathes came in giant gasps.

"I'll wait for you to catch your breathe a little before we start our next training session." Jiraiya said with a smirk as he watched Naruto rolled over to his back. The boy's face was covered in sweat, and his jacket looked a little stuffy for Jiraiya's liking.

"Wha…What do you mean next training session?" Naruto forced out, still breathing heavily from his overexertion due to the running.

"Watch." Came Jiraiya's simple reply as he still had not dispelled his clones, he walked over to the group of clones and started doing a series of hand seals, and quietly said a jutsu name under his breathe, and the clones began to drift to separate stalks of the trees, and molded into the trees.

After that was accomplished Jiraiya made three other clones, and sent one clones to slowly walk into the middle of the small square of trees that had passages only the width of the clone's shoulders.

"This, is what we are going to be starting on today, we are going to be working on your horrid taijutsu." With that jib Naruto was about to counter, but found that he would rather gain his regular breathing back and watch the clone in the middle of the tree square.

The clone stood still for a moment, and took a relaxed fighting stance. Everything was quiet for a moment, Naruto looked to Jiraiya and was about to ask him what was going on, but suddenly the clone came alive with movement. Out of the trees that were stood up in the holes in the ground the fists and feet were coming punching at the clone in the middle. It was a dance of deadly blows, and the clone in the middle was doing excellent, it had yet to get hit in a vital point, and had blocked most of the assault efficiently.

Naruto stared at the fight before, and was slightly taken aback, this type of training was so much different the type he was used to, he had no doubt in his mind that he could possibly get torn apart by this type of training.

"…Sensei…" Naruto started, not used to having to address Jiraiya with honor, "…what exactly is the point of this exercise?"

Jiraiya turned towards Naruto and looked him in the eyes "This is going to make you a taijutsu powerhouse." With that simple answer Naruto saw that the clone had made a mistake and had vanished, leaving the tree square eerily devoid of motion.

"Looks like its your turn." Jiraiya said as he helped Naruto to his feet and motioned for him to make his way to the center of the tree square. Naruto made his way slowly there, as his legs felt like jelly.

Once Naruto got to the center of the square, he waited for the attacks to come. It didn't take long. Out of no where fists and legs were catching Naruto in the face, gut, back, and legs. The boy felt overwhelmed at first but he desperately tried to block as many as he could, but the attacks kept coming. He started moving his body side to side and began bobbing his head, dodging a few strikes, but he had to work on the body shots that were destroying him. He slowly began using his arms and legs to block a portion of the strikes from hitting his body, that was before a fist hit him in his side, his blind spot, and felt two of his ribs break.

"AHH!!" Naruto cried out, but continued to block the attacks from landing and hitting vitals spots, this kept up for about 2 minutes before he felt a sheering pain in the front of his shoulder. He looked down and saw a kunai buried deep into his flesh, as he looked up he saw Jiraiya with a handful of kunai and shuriken, and a grim look on his face.

'This training is serious' Naruto thought to himself steeling himself for the rest of the training. He recovered from the sudden pain and continued to parry some of the attacks coming at him, occasionally he could sense a projectile being aimed at him, he was able to dodge a few, but by the time 5 minutes had passed the boy began to look like a pin cushion, kunai here and shuriken there.

Naruto eventually just fell flat on his face after about 20 minutes of the exercise, breathing in pained gasps. As soon as he hit the ground the attack from the logs stopped, and Jiraiya made his way over to Naruto to help him up.

"Come on, lets get you over to the campfire," Jiraiya said as helped Naruto to his feet and let the boy use himself as a crutch to walk over to the fire place. Jiraiya was surprised that Naruto had yet to yell at him, or say something about the brutal training, but kept quiet. When they got to the campfire, Jiraiya helped Naruto out by removing the various weapons sticking out of him, and washed and bandaged his wounds. After all that was done Jiraiya moved over to his traveling bag and brought out a shogi board, which caused Naruto to raise an eyebrow at.

"I am going to teach you to become a strategist, and you will be a great one. I will eventually give you many situations in which you have limited resources and various ninjas who specialize in a specific area, and I will expect you to come up with a good strategy. But for now we will start with a simple game of shogi." Jiraiya explained as he set up the board for the both of them to play each other.

Naruto was mildly interested, he was more concerned with nursing his wounds he received during that last training exercise. Eventually Jiraiya got the shogi board set up and Naruto played the elder man.

They played shogi for 2 hours, Naruto had lost 3 out of 3 times, and had got very frustrated with himself for not being able to come up with at good strategy for beating the old man.

"Naruto, you have to realize that you need to plan ahead, and the farther ahead you can plan the better off you are, and when you know something is going to happen you should do your best to try and come up with a plan to help counter whatever is about to happen." Jiraiya lectured the boy.

"Alright, gotcha." Naruto replied still a little sore about his brutal loss to the sannin. He had taken the words to heart, and was listening to what ever Jiraiya had to say, if his sensei was going to take his training seriously, then he was too.

"Sensei," Naruto said, still getting used to having to the honorific title.

Jiraiya turned his head from where he was packing up the shogi board "Yeah gaki?"

"I'm pretty wiped out I think I'm going to hit the hay, is there any other training for today?" Naruto asked with a yawn at the end of his sentence.

Jiraiya smirked "Nope, you finished your first real day of training, but tomorrow will be just as hard." He warned.

"Psht, whatever." Naruto said as he rolled over in his sleeping bag. Little did Naruto realize that Jiraiya was counting on the boy's quick healing factor to help him be prepared for the next day of training.

Naruto was so exhausted that he fell asleep relatively quickly, leaving Jiraiya to his musings. It was only about 7 o'clock, and he had a lot of time on his hands, but the white haired man decided to not, as it would be leaving his student alone, and defenseless. With that final thought Jiraiya reached into the his traveling bag and retrieved a blank book, and grabbed a pen. He smiled before he began to write on the first page, he wrote for a couple hours before he joined his blonde companion in sleep.

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Naruto was in a peaceful bliss, he can't remember the last time he was that tired, and the sleep was amazing…before a bucket of cold water came crashing down onto his face.

"WHAT THE CRAP IS THIS?!?!?!" Naruto roared, as he was abruptly awoken from sleep that he desperately wanted.

"This, is breakfast." Jiraiya said as he handed Naruto the skillet with what looked liked salmon on it. "Hurry up and eat, we have more training to get through today." Jiraiya said as he too sat down and began eating his own food on a separate skillet.

After the hard day of training yesterday Naruto was famished and the salmon disappeared very quickly.

"Kay sensei, what are we doing today?" Naruto said as he climbed out of his sleeping bag, and began stretching.

Jiraiya smile at his pupil's enthusiasm. "We have more physical training, and then some more battle training, and again with the strategy."

It took Naruto a few minutes for Naruto to finish his stretches, and he removed his jacket, leaving only the black t-shirt he wore underneath it to show, Jiraiya and Naruto walked about 20 feet away from their camp.

"Alright Naruto, make about 10 shadow clones." Jiraiya commanded the boy, who obliged and soon there were 11 Naruto's standing in front of Jiraiya.

"Now what sensei?" Naruto asked still trying to be as respectful as he could be.

"I want you to do as many push-ups, pull-ups, and sit-ups as you can do before you collapse from doing to many." Jiraiya said, causing Naruto's face to flinch, "And the shadow clones will be working on chakra control exercises, this way eventually you will be able to learn many jutsu during your training."

After Jiraiya had said this he began walking away from the real Naruto who was already starting to do the push-ups. When he was a little ways away from Naruto he had assigned half of his shadow clones to run up and down the trees using their chakra, and the other half he showed them how to make a leaf hover above their palm, and set them free. This was a great training exercise, as the clone's chakra would be drawing from Naruto's chakra supplies, and the boy would be getting his reserves even greater by this exercise.

Jiraiya went back to the camp and watched the exercises that he put his pupil through, it will be a while before he will put Naruto through the next training exercise. Jiraiya sat down and grabbed the book he was writing in and began writing in it again, continuing where he left off the night before.

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'You can do this, it is nothing, you are not tired.' Naruto thought to himself as he was running out of gas. He had done as many push-ups continuously, and then sit-ups, and now he was doing pull-ups, and he would be stopping soon, he couldn't feel his arms anymore, they felt weak. He pulled himself up one more time, before he fell of the tree branch that he was using to do his pull-ups.

Naruto landed on his back and let his arms rest where they fell to the floor, as they were exhausted.

"Your done, good, I'll let you rest for a few minutes," Jiraiya said as he sat down next to Naruto, and let the boy rest his obviously tired arms.

"After a few minutes we will go dismiss your clones, and hopefully then your chakra control will start to improve over the few days." Jiraiya said.

After a 5 minute rest Jiraiya got to his feet and Naruto followed and they both began to walk back to the group of shadow clones.

"Now, you should only dispatch half of them at one time, and let the information sink in before you dispatch the rest of them." Jiraiya instructed, to which his student nodded his head, and did the hand sign to release the 5 that had been running up and down the tree. As soon as he did this he received a large head rush, realizing that he could run up and down a tree using chakra quite easily now, with no problem.

Next Naruto moved and dispatched the rest of the clones, and received their information, and realized that he was not that good at the leaf exercise, but he could tell that eventually he could get better.

"Alright good, now it's time to really work on you taijutsu." Jiraiya said as he spaced himself away from Naruto, giving them a good distance to work with.

Naruto had a confused look on his face at first, "Didn't we work on my taijutsu yesterday?"

"Kind of, we were mainly working on honing your reflexes, and being able to block attacks coming from all over," Jiraiya explained "but this is going to be your real taijutsu style, it is something that you will have to create yourself, but I am going to point you in the right direction."

As Jiraiya had finished this sentence he launched himself at Naruto. Naruto was taken aback by this sudden action and had little time to react. Jiraiya landed a punch on Naruto's left shoulder, and forced the punch all the way through, and Naruto doing what came natural to him took the momentum that Jiraiya gave him and spun around and used his elbow trying to hit Jiraiya in the back of the head.

Jiraiya, predicting this, ducked under the blow, and swept at Naruto's legs, taking both of them out, causing Naruto to fall flat on his back.

"Gah!" Naruto cried out, trying to get back up, doing it slowly though.

"Naruto, the style I'm going to teach you uses counterattacks, and your opponents momentum against them, it is a very rare taijutsu style, and there are virtually no styles the counter this style." Jiraiya explained the taijutsu style.

Naruto's interested peeked when he heard that there were no styles that could counter the taijutsu style, "That's freaking sweet!" Naruto said excited to learn something so cool.

"The basics of the style is to be able to predict where you are going to get hit by an attack, and put a field of chakra in front of your body on that part of your body, as to protect yourself, and then you use the momentum your opponent has given you and use that against them." Jiraiya explained the very simple basics of the style, and continued "But there is a risk involved. To be able to use the style correctly you are putting yourself prone to enemy attacks, and opens up your defenses to your enemy. So that is why I am going to be teaching you a large arsenal of jutsus that you can use at a seconds notice, so that if you start taking too much damage you can use jutsu to fight at a distance." Jiraiya finished his plans for how he was going to teach his apprentice.

Naruto listened, to the entire speech, and had his grin plastered on his face, eager to begin learning this taijutsu style. "Let's begin sensei." Naruto said with excitement in his voice.

"Alright." Jiraiya replied, as he launched himself forward, and struck Naruto square in the chest, giving Naruto little time to put a pad of chakra there hence forth knock the breathe right out of him, and causing him to go sprawling.

"What the…sensei?" Naruto as he got up slowly and regained his breathe, the strike had much more force than he expected it to have.

"You have to learn how to counter every attack that you can, and block the rest of the attacks that you cannot counter." Jiraiya explained as he made his way over to Naruto.

"How was I supposed to block that last attack?" Naruto asked.

"Simple." Jiraiya walked right in front of Naruto and slowly punched at him like he had done mere seconds ago, and stopped when his fist made contact with Naruto's chest.

"When a strike like this happens to you, you must focus chakra to your feet very quickly, so that you adhere to the ground." Jiraiya said, as he began to slowly push Naruto backward, Naruto focusing chakra to his feet to keep them there.

"Once you have began to fall towards the ground, stop the flow of chakra to your feet. That way you can perform a backhand spring, and catch your opponent by surprise and under their chin." Jiraiya explained, as he gave Naruto one final push, forcing the boy into a back handspring, going through the entire acrobatic move a bit awkwardly, he was back into a relaxed battle stance.

"See what I mean by using your opponents momentum against them?" Jiraiya asked.

"Yeah I do now," Naruto replied, "but how do I counter a strike that hits me in the thigh, or the legs, or arms, or even the head?"

"Good question." Jiraiya said, proud that his pupil thought of these things, "For a strike on your thigh or legs you should try to deflect the attack, or make it graze off of you, and then get inside your opponents guard and take them apart with quick attacks. Arms and head shots are easily avoided, eventually you will be quick enough to dodge those attacks aimed at those body parts. But after you have dodged the attacks and are allowing your enemy moving by you, you can utilize shuriken and kunai within their guard and still use your quick attacks." Jiraiya finished the explanation of the style.

"This style is mainly used for close range combat, so as to compliment that, I am going to teach you an arsenal of useful jutsu, like I said before." Jiraiya added. This caused a huge grin to spread across Naruto's face.

"But first we need to finish with forming your taijutsu style." Jiraiya told Naruto.

Naruto's grin dropped a little bit, but the prospect of learning something that was meant only for him made his spirit rise. "Alright, let's go then!" he yelled with enthusiasm, energy returning to him.

Jiraiya nodded once, and returned to his normal stance, he was going to spar with Naruto and his new taijutsu style, though he was going to be using a slower fighting style to help Naruto get the basics.

As soon as Naruto had put himself into a relaxed stance, Jiraiya surged forward, and aimed a punch at Naruto's face, which he ducked under, as soon as the boy had chosen that course Jiraiya quickly brought up a lightning fast round house kick that connected with Naruto's shoulder, one that he didn't have the speed to block. The kick sent Naruto into the dirt, and skidding for 5 feet, leaving scrapes and scratches along his body.

Naruto bit back a yell, as the kick to the shoulder felt like it had broken his shoulder joint. "Never duck under anything, you had compromised your position in that situation. Your have more options if you were to dodge to the sides, and that way you can attack any part of your opponent's body, as compared to if you ducked you can only successfully attack the lower part of your opponents body." Jiraiya lectured the more useful ways to fight in the stance.

Naruto hissed as the pain in his shoulder slowly ebbed away. "Alright, I understand that, buy why did you have to hit me so hard?" Naruto asked, a little peeved that his sensei nearly destroyed his shoulder.

Jiraiya gave a hearty laugh before he elaborated why he attacked so ferociously, "Because, that way Naruto, you come to realize that whenever you make a mistake, pain is the punishment." The explanation was blunt, but it delivered the message clearly.

Naruto steeled his resolve as he stood and took his fighting relaxed fighting stance, ready for Jiraiya to come at him again. Jiraiya smiled and got into his respective stance again.

Jiraiya launched himself at Naruto again, and this time he brought his right hand far back, and was going to throw a wide punch that obviously had a lot of power behind it. As Naruto saw that the punch was aimed at his head, and not knowing what to do, he brought his arms to block the attack. But the punch had so much power that it again rocked Naruto's world, shooting pain up both of his arms and sending him sprawling to the floor, which seemed to be a common occurrence in this training session.

"AH!!!" Naruto shouted as he cradled his already sore arms, now they would have major bruises forming on them. Naruto wondered if the toad sannin had broken them for a moment, but came to a conclusion that the white haired man only liked beating up on teenagers.

"When guarding from those type of attacks, you should try dodging most of the time. But the most successful counter to those attacks are to try blocking the strike at the shoulder, or even just moving inside your opponents guard, so the powerful attack is wasted." Jiraiya lectured, all the while with Naruto glaring at him.

"Alright," Naruto said, "I get that now, but why are you hitting me so hard?" he was a little upset that his sensei thought it was funny to nearly break the bones in his body.

"This way you won't make that same mistake twice, and it helps relieve me of my anxiety." Jiraiya said, obviously lying on the second part. "Now stand up, so we can continue your training."

Naruto obliged and returned to that relaxed stance that he was beginning to get used to. After a moment's worth of waiting Jiraiya rushed at him again, and threw a lightning fast punch straight towards Naruto's head. Naruto moved his head quickly to the side, causing Jiraiya to miss his mark. At this sudden development Naruto was inside Jiraiya's guard, and brought up his elbow quickly to strike Jiraiya in the stomach. It connected, forcing the air out Jiraiya's lungs, and causing him to double over. Naruto followed through with his strike, going up, and connecting with Jiraiya's jaw, sending him sprawling onto his back.

After seeing what he had accomplished Naruto pumped his fist into the air and cheered loud, almost starting a celebration.

"Good," Jiraiya said as he got back up to his feet, "but the strike was weak, lacking force, and speed. We will work on that." Jiraiya continued, causing Naruto to look a little disheartened. "But that was excellent form, and an even better idea on how to use a chain of successful strikes." Jiraiya praised, causing Naruto to smile again.

"Let's continue." Jiraiya said.

That was the way that the rest of the afternoon proceeded, with Naruto sprawled over the ground, afterwards getting tips from Jiraiya, and occasionally Naruto landing a series of damaging strikes on Jiraiya. They kept at it that specific training for a few more hours, until Jiraiya thought that Naruto had enough training in the taijutsu apartment for the day. They had trained for 2 hours and took a break to eat lunch, before they continued with their training.

After lunch both of them were on the training field again. Though this time Naruto was allowed to sit, by his abundance of complaining and the lack of any physical activity in this part of his training.

"So, you know how to use the shuriken and kunai," Jiraiya said, while he made 4 shadow clones and sent them off into the woods surrounding them to retrieve a tree. "but do you truly know how to utilize them?" he asked as his clones came back with one, dug a hole and stuck it in the ground, and drawing a very small circle in the center of the tree, before they were dismissed.

Naruto sat there and pondered it a bit, before he came up with the answer "I know how to utilize them as a distraction, or as a silent kill if my enemy does not know I am there. I'm not very accurate with them though." Naruto finished, analyzing his own use of the two ninja weapons.

"Those are some descent uses of the weapons, but I am going to teach you how you can kill a trained ninja with only those two weapons." Jiraiya said, catching Naruto's attention with that saying.

"Most trained ninja know that a kunai or a shuriken are a desperate attempt to kill an opponent, or to slow them down. Other ninja know that they could be mere distractions, which is what they usually are. They distract so that one could sneak up behind their enemy, or so they can form the hand seals to perform a jutsu." Jiraiya lectured on.

Suddenly with quickness he threw a kunai at the tree stump, Naruto watched as it thumped into the stump, but his eyes widened when he saw a second kunai push the first into the tree even further, before it dangled from the first kunai.

"I used chakra string to attach the second kunai to the first." Jiraiya explained, as he cut the flow of chakra connecting the kunai, the second one fell to the ground with a dull thud. "When I reached into my kunai pouch I attached the first and second kunai with the chakra string, and only threw one. This is a way to catch your enemy off guard, as most of the time ninjas only notice that you threw one kunai and don't account for the second in the shadow of the first."

Naruto sat and listened, thinking of all the ways he could use these ideas that Jiraiya was giving him, this was the type of training that he wanted.

"And this is also great because most of the time ninja tend to deflect the first kunai, and do not notice the second." Jiraiya finished his explanation of the useful tactics of the shadow kunai.

"AWESOME!!! How do I use chakra strings?" Naruto asked, excited about learning the useful technique, he already had ideas how he could work that into his other jutsus.

Jiraiya laughed before he answered, "Chakra strings take a certain level of chakra control, you will learn it eventually, but not today. Today I want you to think of other ways to use those two weapons usefully." Jiraiya said as he began to walk away, he wanted Naruto to get the idea that kunai and shuriken were truly deadly weapons, if used correctly. But he did not want to spend that much time on the subject; he was going to retrieve Naruto at the end of the hour, because they still had their shogi game to play.

It was about an hour later when Jiraiya came over to retrieve Naruto, they still had a few hours of daylight before night set in. Naruto smiled as he thought he would be able to end his hard training early. He was wrong.

"Alright, time for your run again." Jiraiya said, surprising Naruto.

"It's almost night! How come I have to go for a run?" Naruto yelled, angry that he had to do more physically demanding exercises.

"To increase your speed, gaki. Besides it won't take you that long to finish, it's the same sprinting exercise as yesterday." Jiraiya said, causing Naruto to groan in pain.

"That exercise is HELL sensei!" Naruto said, making use of the word sensei easier than it had been in a while.

"I don't care, it's a good speed training exercise, now get it done with so we can play our game of shogi." Jiraiya instructed Naruto as he walked back to the camp and began setting up the shogi board, while Naruto started sprinting as fast as he could for as long as he could.

***

45 minutes later the two of them were playing shogi, but Naruto was being assaulted by situation questions, and scenarios were being played out on the shogi board. Jiraiya had set up the shogi board so that he had the upper hand every time, but Naruto had the option of setting up good defenses and dwindling Jiraiya's pieces without losing many of his own.

"Come on Naruto, you have to do better than that." Jiraiya scolded as he began to put the shogi pieces back to where they were at the beginning. "These are real battle situations that could possibly happen, and if you are going to lead a team these are the choices that you have to make."

"I know sensei, but I haven't ever really thought of stuff like this before, so cut me some slack." Naruto countered, defending himself, as he was getting aggravated with the pervert for stomping him in the board game.

The game ended with Naruto eventually understanding what he had to do in that situation, but it took him a while. After the game Naruto ate the food that Jiraiya had been preparing and fell asleep a few minutes after he laid down in his sleeping bag. Jiraiya looked at the sleeping boy, exhausted from the hard day of training.

'You better get used to it Naruto, the training has only just begun.' Jiraiya thought as he threw another log on the fire in the center of their camp before he climbed into his own sleeping bag, and eventually dozed off.

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**A/N:** Sorry about this chapter, it's not the best, but I had to describe how Naruto was going to be trained and the things he was going to get trained in. I also apologize because Naruto wasn't really a big force in this chapter, because he had to listen to what Jiraiya had to say to him and the training procedures.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N Originally Naruto and Jiraiya were only gone for 2 and a half years, I changed that to 4 years, but every event that happens has been postponed according to Naruto and Jiraiya's travel. Now that that is out of the way,

I do not own Naruto.

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Jiraiya sighed as he made his way towards the looming gates. It had been four years since Naruto and he had last been in the great city. Tsunade might be livid about him staying on the trip an extra half a year than planned. Sure he sent her messages explaining that little fact, but he burnt all the ones he got in return, in fear of what they would say.

"Well sensei, we are finally done with the training." Naruto said as he stood next to Jiraiya, smiling broadly at the world.

"Hey gaki, don't think that means you stop training, you know what to do, you have to stay in top condition." Jiraiya said scolding the boy walking next to him.

"Alright sensei." Naruto said as both teacher and student continued to walk towards the gates of Konoha.

When they arrived in front of the two chunin that were guarding the front gates they were stopped.

"What is your purpose here?" asked one with a lazy drawl, while the other leaned against the gates, in a relaxed posture.

"We are returning from a training trip." Jiraiya said as he handed over some papers to the guard. The guard looked up from the papers and nodded at Jiraiya before he signaled for the gates to be opened.

"Yes! We are finally home!" Naruto shouted as he pumped his hand into the air, smiling and looking around him, taking in the sight of his home.

"Before you go anywhere we have to go see Tsunade, debriefing." Jiraiya said, the blood flowing from his face as the ever pressing time was coming.

"Yeah, that's going to be fun," Naruto said as he rolled his eyes, he knew he was supposed to be back half a year ago, and the fifth Hokage will not be pleased that they are late. "just blame half of it on me, and hopefully things won't be too bad." Naruto said, trying to think of a positive way out the situation they were in.

Jiraiya laughed, "Take half the blame? I'm going to say it was entirely your fault."

Both traveling companions shared a laugh as they made their way towards the Hokage's office.

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Tsunade was busy, she was just about done with a large stack of paperwork that had previously dominated the space on her desk. Just a few more papers and she would be…

BAM

That sound from outside her door, and had her on alert in an instance. She moved her hand to a part of her desk that held a kunai, and grabbed it, ready to throw at whoever opened the door.

THUD

Another noise, this one was closer to the door now, Tsunade moved and had the kunai ready to throw. The door handle turned slowly, before the door was thrust open, and Tsunade let the kunai fly…

…only for two people to deftly dodge the kunai.

"Whoa! Take it easy Tsunade." Jiraiya said as he looked at the kunai that flew past Naruto and him, and noticed that it went completely threw the wall behind him. Jiraiya and Naruto walked into her office, Jiraiya stayed the same, just like she had suspected, but Naruto had changed.

Naruto stood at about 5 foot 10 inches, with his blonde hair longer than he usually kept it before he left for the training trip. He had pieces of hair that fell to either side of his face, framing it, and making an uncanny resemblance to his father, the Yondaime. His body structure had changed also, now he was lean and had plenty of toned muscle.

He wore a navy blue vest over a skin tight orange long sleeved shirt. The navy blue vest remained open in the front, to reveal the fishnet shirt that he wore underneath the vest but over the orange long sleeved tee. Both of his hands and knuckles were tapped, going further up the arm, but hidden from view by the long sleeved tee. He wore his Hitaite around his waist, using it as a belt almost. He also wore midnight black pants, where on both legs were kunai and shuriken holsters. The black pants made their way towards his ankles, where they were tapped off. He wore the standard ninja sandals, they were a dark blue, matching his vest. His feet were also wrapped in tape up to where his toes started. The change in appearance surprised the fifth Hokage.

She got up from behind her desk and embraced the young boy she hadn't seen for 3 years, and gave an acknowledging look towards the toad sannin. She then walked back around her desk and sat down, and asked one simple question, "Why are you half a year late?" She asked.

…No one said anything as the traveling partners looked at each other out of the corner of their eyes, and looked away still not saying anything. Tsunade was beginning to get annoyed.

"An explanation please." Was all Tsunade asked for.

Silence still reigned in the office.

Eventually Tsunade stood and gripped the desk with her hands, anger seeping into her body language

"Now hold the phone Hokage-sama." Naruto said waving his hands in the air, seeing the threatening pose the fifth Hokage had taken.

"IT WAS ALL THE BOY'S FAULT TSUNADE, HE MADE ME DO IT!" Jiraiya said, in desperation to save himself, tears streaming down his face.

"No way, _your_ the one who tied me up and made me do it!!" Naruto retorted, forgetting Tsunade.

"I wouldn't have had to tie you up if _you _didn't take her home and-" Jiraiya was about to finish the sentence before Naruto interrupted.

"Don't even start sensei! You are the one who locked that girl and me in the room! So really it's your fault her father came after me, and I told him that you cast a genjutsu on me!" Naruto yelled back at his sensei. Tsunade was angry at first but as she listened she was almost entertained, and wanted to know what they had done.

"Well I wouldn't have had to lock you in the room if you hadn't joked and told me to kidnap his daughter while I was rip roaring drunk!!!" Jiraiya said, defending himself.

"Yeah well your just lucky that her father's aim was two inches below my-" Naruto was about to finish his sentence before he was interrupted by a roaring Hokage.

"SHUT UP!!!" Tsunade screamed, successfully silencing the traveling companions. She was baffled by the tale that they were arguing with each other over.

"Why did you take so long to get back?" Tsunade asked. It was a simple question.

"It's simple, the boy needed more severe training." Came Jiraiya's curt reply.

"Did you have many missions during his training trip?" Tsunade continued to interrogate the toad sannin.

"Yes, but even during those missions Naruto maintained a grueling training schedule." Jiraiya said, feeling relief wash over himself as he watched Tsunade's features soften.

A small silence took place while the members in the office waited for the Hokage to talk.

"…It's good to finally have you both back." Tsunade finally said as she smiled at the two of them. They both looked at each other and visibly sighed. They had been expecting Tsunade's wrath, they weren't big fans of that.

"So how did his training go?" Tsunade asked.

"Excellent, the kid is quite powerful now." Jiraiya said, his chest puffing out, proud of what he did with the kid.

"Good, I'll let you mingle with the rest of the genin teams Naruto, but later today you and Kakashi will spar with Sakura." Tsunade informed the boy.

Said boy smiled, "Sure thing Hokage-sama." Naruto was about to leave the office before he heard a familiar voice coming from the office window sill. A man that Naruto had known through his genin days was crouching in the window.

"Yo" Was all Kakashi had to say to get Naruto's attention.

"KAKASHI-SENSEI!!!" Naruto cried as he turned around to see the cycloptic nin on the window sill of the Hokage building. "Long time no see."

"Yeah, you can say that. Well you certainly have changed since the last time I've seen you." Kakashi said as he took in all the physical changes that had happened to the blonde over the 3 years he was gone.

"Yeah I guess so." Naruto said, before he got a devilish smile on his face, one that he usually had before he pulled a big prank. "I got you something Kakashi sensei." Naruto said quietly, catching the jounin's attention. As he reached into one of his kunai holsters, and started looking around.

"That's good Naruto, but I'm not a big fan of rame-" Kakashi started, but couldn't finish his sentence as he was gaping at what Naruto held in his hands.

"Is that…?" Kakashi asked, unable to form words at what was being presented to him.

"Yes, the gold edition of Icha Icha Paradise volume 12, with the bonus pictures." Naruto said as he handed his sensei that book.

"Naruto…I can't even imagine how…" Kakashi was still at a loss of words.

"It's alright Kakashi sensei, have fun reading that book cause I'm going to go meet up with everyone." Naruto said as he began to move back to the Hokage's door. "See ya later today!"

But before he could actually leave the office, he was interrupted again, as Shizune entered, looking down at some papers in her hands.

"Tsunade-sama, there have been reports of the people going crazy-" Shizune entered the room and looked up, to see two people she hasn't seen in 3 years.

"Naruto!!! Jiraiya-san!!!" Shizune said as she rushed forward and hugged both of them.

"That's more like a welcome home." Jiraiya said, happy that someone showed him affection.

"Yeah, I liked that better than I did the bullet kunai." Naruto also added, causing Tsunade's eye to twitch.

"Brat you better get out of here before I end up beating you to a pulp." Tsunade threatened.

Naruto smiled at her as he got up and started walking towards the door before he responded, "Alright Hokage-sama, I guess I'll see you guys around." Naruto said as he left the office, leaving the adults to discuss what occurred during the 3 years he was absent.

A calm silence overtook the adults after the boy left, until Tsunade broke it. "How powerful has he really gotten?"

Jiraiya smirked, knowing full well what his capable student can do, "He has been able to beat me a half of the time we spare going all out. His strategy has increased unceremoniously, not as good as the Nara boy his age, but pretty close. He has his father's speed." Jiraiya stated, causing both women's eyes to widen.

"He can use his father's style of taijutsu also, and he has incredible chakra control, and quite a formidable library of useful jutsu." Jiraiya finished his overview of Naruto's skills.

Tsunade looked at Jiraiya, and smiled, he had actually trained the boy. "If you were to give him a rank, what would it be?" Tsunade asked.

Jiraiya still had the smirk plastered on his face, "Jounin, easy."

Tsunade's eyes widened slightly at that, but not much. "I take your word for it."

"But you might want to be there when Kakashi spars with Sakura and Naruto, he's in for quite a surprise." Jiraiya said, confident in his student's abilities.

Tsunade smiled as she replied, "Alright, we will go and watch that spar."

The adults sat in a comfortable silence enjoying each other's company for a few moments, before Tsunade broke it again. "Since when has he begun to use manners? Addressing me as 'Hokage-sama', and you as 'sensei'?"

"Well I was getting quite sick of him calling me ero-sannin, so I told him that since I was taking his training serious that he had to respect me as a serious student would, and in the end the respect ended up being used in everything he did." Jiraiya said, explaining the transformation that happened to Naruto.

Tsunade nodded her head in understanding, "I see now. But I have another question for you."

Jiraiya looked at her, but said nothing.

"What happened with the father and daughter and why did you have to tie up the kid when you were drunk?" She asked, truly curious as to what the conversation they were having earlier.

As soon as Tsunade asked the question Jiraiya's eyes got big and he began looking around, searching for something, or someone.

"I can't tell you that, it could be considered an S-class secret," Jiraiya said, as he began to sweat, continuing looking around the room, "But it was all the boy's fault, he was the one who pushed the rock off the cliff onto the house."

At this Jiraiya stood up abruptly, and looked at the women in front of him, "Well the talk was good, but I think that I have to go now." He finished, walking briskly behind Tsunade and Shizune, opened the Hokage's office window and jumped out of it, looking for Naruto, leaving the two women too look at each other. Tsunade even more confused and curious as to what happened, while Shizune thought Jiraiya finally went off his rocker.

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Naruto had been walking through the streets of Konoha, taking in all the sites, as it had been 3 years since he last seen his hometown. Not much changed in his absence, which the boy was appreciative of, he liked familiarity. He continued walking around, reminiscing in the past, all the places he could remember from his childhood, making him smile.

As he continued walking a person came in step next to him, and they both walked at a leisurely pace through the town.

Naruto decided to break the silence, "So how did the rest of the meeting go sensei?"

Jiraiya glanced at Naruto, who had a small smirk on his face, and answered, "Alright, Tsunade wanted to know how powerful you have become and the likes, the changes you went through."

Naruto nodded his head at what Jiraiya had sad, the two walked in silence as they turned a corner. As soon as the two got a clear view of the street Naruto's face visibly brightened.

"Sakura!!!" Naruto called to get the said girl's attention who was walking away from the two guys walking side-by-side. He had spotted the bubble-gum pink hair, and not many people had that type of hair.

Sakura turned around to see her blond teammate that she hadn't seen in 4 years. She turned around and ran up to both Jiraiya and Naruto, she looked at Naruto and took in his changes that happened over the years.

"How's it going Sakura? How have you been?" Naruto asked, excited to see his teammate after such a long absence. Noticing all the changes that had happened to her as well.

"I'm good, and life around here has been really boring. Not many exciting missions, and all there is to really do is train." Sakura answered the questions Naruto asked. "What about you Naruto, how was your training trip?"

"It was too long," Naruto said exasperated, causing Jiraiya's eyebrow to tick. "but I have learned so many new things that it's awesome and makes up for it."

Sakura's nodded her head, she knew that training under a sannin would do good for Naruto but she also wanted to see what Naruto could really do. "Well we might get to see what you really did learn on that training trip, cause we have to spar with Kakashi-sensei in a little while."

Naruto nodded his head, and looked excited about the fight to come. As they were catching up on the latest things, Naruto noticed two people walking down the street towards them who looked awfully familiar.

"Shikamaru? Temari-san?" Naruto asked as he noticed how the lazy boy had changed over the years, and also noted how Gaara's sister had changed.

Said two teens looked over at the boy who had called to them, and got a surprise. Temari got a blush as she remembered the short kid at the chunin exams who had obviously grown out of his midget-ness. All the while Shikamaru felt like he was looking at a young Yondaime Hokage, with whisker like birthmarks.

"So…what are you two doing today?" Naruto asked with a smirk.

Shikamaru sighed at the boy's antics, "She is the sand representative, and I am here to escort her around."

"Okay." Naruto said, obviously not believing it, "So Temari-san, how is Gaara these days?"

"He is good, no longer having his crazy sprees." She said, both of Gaara's siblings were eternally thankful for Naruto's deed during the invasion 4 years ago. He beat some sense into Gaara, and had calmed him down quite a bit; and in the end both boys became close friends.

"That's awesome, I'm gonna have to go see him sometime soon." Naruto said, but as he finished that sentence he noticed Tsunade, Shizune, and Kakashi walking up to them.

Jiraiya looked at the number of people who had just arrived, eyebrows raised, "You actually came to witness his spar?"

"Yeah, we actually have, I am interested in viewing his battle capabilities." Tsunade replied.

"That's good, because I didn't want to be the only one watching the fight." Jiraiya said.

"Alright, let's get this over with." Naruto said with a sigh, starting walking towards team 7's training ground. Soon the group of people began walking there too, as they were curious to see what the two students of sannin were capable of.

On their walk to the training ground Jiraiya fell in step with Naruto, and they were leading the pack, with everyone closely behind. Despite the close proximity, Naruto and Jiraiya were talking in a hushed voice that no one else could hear what they were talking about. Tsunade and Sakura saw this, and looked at each other, over the four years they had grown quite close. But they seemed truly curious as to what Naruto and Jiraiya were whispering about.

"Excuse me but what are you talking about?" Tsunade inquired.

Jiraiya and Naruto jumped a little, noticing that they were talking to the two of them. Naruto got red in the face, and looked away, while Jiraiya fumbled with his words. "We were, uh, discussing, the . . . yeah. We weren't talking about anything important."

Tsunade usually got her way, and she didn't like it when she didn't get her way, and she was the Hokage. When Jiraiya and Naruto refused to tell her what they were talking about in the office she got a little upset, and now they were refusing again, and she wanted to know what they were talking about.

"You are going to tell me what you were talking about." Tsunade said in a threatening way.

"We can't, it's something that shouldn't have happened." Jiraiya said, getting nervous again, looking around searching for someone…or something.

"As Godaime Hokage I order you to tell me what you were talking about." Tsunade said with a dead serious voice that left no room for argument.

Naruto and Jiraiya looked at each other, still walking towards the training ground, before Jiraiya looked back at Tsunade and began explaining. "Okay, I'll tell you. It was the second year of his training, and we were somewhere by Tea country. It all started by me giving the boy something to do, while I went off to do something productive, I was-"

"Something _productive?!?!?_ You went off to peek at girls in the bathe houses, you perverted sensei!" Naruto yelled, completely forgetting that they were trying to keep this thing a secret a second ago. At Naruto's outburst everyone in the group stopped to look at what was going on, as Naruto and Jiraiya seemed to forget everyone around them.

"Details! Who needs them!!! We wouldn't have gotten into a bad situation if you hadn't used so many exploding notes!!!" Jiraiya yelled back.

"I had to do something to get your attention!! I tried calling your name, but NOOOOO you couldn't hear me over your perverted giggles!!" Naruto yelled back, both Naruto and Jiraiya began to get red in the face.

"Yeah but because of you, we disturbed _IT!!!!!_" Jiraiya cried, with a look of fear in his eyes.

The blood rushed from Naruto's face, making him pale, "That's not a time, place, or _thing,_ I want to remember…" Naruto trailed off, as he and Jiraiya reminisced in the past.

Everyone listening to the argument wanted to know what happened now, and they wanted to know what the _it_ was, but no one said anything for a second, before Sakura got brave and asked, "Um, what exactly did Naruto disturb?"

Both Jiraiya and Naruto looked at the group with wide eyes and white faces, before Naruto answered, "A seven tailed…demon duck…" Jiraiya flinched when Naruto had mentioned it.

The group of people looked at the two in front of them, thinking that they were pulling a joke on them, and expected them to burst out laughing any second; but they didn't. They both had a look of utter terror, and one of mental scaring. They stayed like that for a few seconds, before they returned to normal and began walking towards the training ground again, smiling laughing about something only the two of them would know. Everyone in the group looked at their backs and wondered it if there was even a seven tailed demon duck, and if there was, how did they escape? No one would know…except for the two of them.

'Dammit.' Tsunade thought, disappointed that she still had no idea what the heck was going down with those two. Shizune was starting to understand that they must have a lot of inside stories. Sakura, Kakashi, Temari, thought that they were straight up crazy; but Shikamaru deduced that Naruto and Jiraiya were enemy ninja and were setting up a trap around them, so he decided to whip a few kunai and get in a battle stance. This caused everyone in the group to wonder if Shikamaru finally went crazy also.

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Eventually everyone made it to the training field, not many planned on staying there the entire spar; they only wanted to see some of the action. Now everyone was off to the side a little bit as they looked at the three participants. Kakashi standing reading the latest version of Icha Icha that Naruto had given him; Sakura stood opposite him, and was staring at him, just in case he tried pulling a fast one. Naruto just stood in a relaxed stance facing Kakashi also, forming a triangle.

"Alright you two, you have until dawn to get these from me." Kakashi said as he held up two bells. Both ex-members of team 7 had a sad smile on their face, remembering the first time they took this type of test. Kakashi looked towards the sky realizing that it was around 6 o'clock pm, he hoped the two team-mates could get done with the test in a descent amount of time. Looking back at his students, Kakashi tied the bells to his pants, then put his book away, and then his hands moved towards his mask, and he slowly revealed his sharingan eye; he knew he would need it against these two students of the sannin.

"Begin."

No one moved, Kakashi kept looking between Naruto and Sakura, and noted that Sakura had put on black battle gloves, before he looked at Naruto again, which sent a shiver down his spine.

As Kakashi looked at Naruto, no longer was the soft smile, or the bright blue eyes present. Instead Kakashi was looking at the face of his former sensei, the Yondaime Hokage. Naruto's eyes not once leaving Kakashi. Then he had to look away as Sakura had punched the ground in front of her, growing tired of the stalemate, sending jutting rocks at her sensei.

Kakashi jumped off to the side and then had to jump in order to clear the damage area. Once he was clear of danger he looked back at his opponents, only for his eyes to widen slightly in surprise. Naruto had disappeared, leaving only Sakura in his vision, who was now running at Kakashi.

The sharingan user focused on the girl charging him, as her chakra enhanced attacks could put a hamper on his day. She attacked swiftly, but not that quickly, he was easily dodging attack after attack. Then he sensed something coming at him unbelievably quick. Kakashi jumped in the air to avoid whatever it was, only to realize that it had fazed into existence next to him in the air, with a punch aimed straight for his head. Kakashi realized that it was Naruto, before he moved his head to the side, barely dodging the attack, before grabbing the blond and pulling him behind him through the air.

As Naruto was passing Kakashi he brought his knee straight out in front of him, successfully striking Kakashi hard in the chest cavity with his knee. Both of them began the descent to the ground, both landed on their feet. Naruto turned around to see Kakashi holding his chest with his right hand, obviously his attack was a success.

Kakashi looked at his blond student, the kid was fast, and that face without emotion was starting to bug the cycloptic nin. He stood slowly, wincing as his ribs flared in protest. Looking back towards his student he found that Sakura had made her way over towards Naruto already. There both of his students stood side-by-side, silently watching him.

Kakashi stood there, frozen in place as he watched the very real threat present before him. He had never imagined that Sakura would be as good as she is, but what Naruto had become was unconceivable. As he watched the two teammates, he realized that Naruto was beginning to gather chakra. It was a little at first, but it eventually grew to a ridiculous amount.

Kakashi's eyes narrowed as he was still gathering the chakra. The sharingan user was preparing for the boy to use a powerful nin-jutsu, when all of a sudden the chakra was non-existent, and noted that Naruto was now a mere two feet away from him to his left, Kakashi turned just in time to block a punch aimed at his head. Then he had to duck under a reverse punch that caught the cycloptic nin off guard; while Kakashi was ducking he received a knee to the chin, not realizing the fluidity that Naruto could use in his taijutsu style. Skidding backwards a way Kakashi got to his feet quickly and moved his line of vision so that he could see his two opponents.

Naruto walked to stand over besides Sakura, as they both stared at Kakashi. Now standing across from each other Kakashi decided that he should take to the offense, slouching forward slightly before he heard the familiar sound of a fast moving kunai flying through the air. His instincts told Kakashi that the kunai was aimed with pinpoint precision at his jugular vein in his neck. Moving to the side slightly Kakashi allowed kunai to pass by his neck by a hairsbreadth, only to have his eyes widen as a second kunai pierced his jugular, before the cycloptic nin was replaced with a log and a kunai sticking out it.

Sitting in a tree 30 yards away from where he had last been he watched as Naruto withdrew his left hand with a smirk on his face. _'So it had been Naruto who threw the kunai, one frighteningly fast and with deadly aim, and he also threw a second in an arch hiding within the shadow of first throughout the arch. That is a truly deadly combination.'_ Kakashi mulled this over as he stared at his two ex-students as they both turned to look at him in his hiding spot. Kakashi felt an unfamiliar shiver of fear climb his spine as he stared at the ice cold eyes of one Uzumaki Naruto.

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Naruto stood beside Sakura, as they both stared at the sharingan user sitting in a tree just staring at the two in return. Naruto started thinking through all the scenarios that could help them complete this task with the least amount of time.

"…That's it." Naruto whispered to himself, deciding that course of action would be the best way to obtain the bells for Sakura and himself.

"Mind queuing me in on the plan Naruto?" Sakura asked, not once taking her eyes off Kakashi, still sitting in the tree.

"I want you to create as much mayhem and destruction as you can," Naruto said letting Sakura know exactly what he wanted her to do. "Make it as deadly as you can too."

Sakura spared Naruto a quick glance before looking back at Kakashi, a smile spreading across her face, "Sure thing, but why?"

Both teens tensed their bodies ready for an attack as Kakashi stood from his crouching position in the tree and launched himself into the air towards the two teens, Naruto breathed out his answer loud enough for Sakura to hear, "I need a distraction."

As Kakashi was descending upon the team-mates he began forming rapid hand seals, finishing the jutsu he prepared in a matter of moments. Kakashi cried out "Tsuchi gosunkugi no jutsu!" releasing the technique he had gathered the chakra for.

Sakura's eyes widened as she launched herself backwards several times, just fast enough to avoid the spiked pieces of earth as they jutted themselves out of the ground. Naruto Launched himself into the air, attempting to meet Kakashi head on.

Kakashi saw this and twisted in the air managing to create enough distance between himself and the blond, then Kakashi started flying through another set of hand seals, gathering more chakra than the last jutsu. Just as Kakashi landed between to spikes of earth he turned and aimed his jutsu at the still ascending blond, who looked mildly interested at what the cycloptic nin was doing, and released the jutsu.

"Raiton suto-mu no jutsu!" Kakashi cried out as lightening shot out of the sky straight at Naruto still suspended in a fixed flight pattern above ground.

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Kakashi watched in a cold sweat at what he saw; he was expecting Naruto to create a kage-bunshin and use that as leverage in the air to clear the lightening that was closing in on the blond. Instead he watched as the blond spun around facing Kakashi in the air, raised his right arm towards the lightening and aimed at Kakashi with his left hand.

The cycloptic nin watched in almost slow motion, taking in every detail with his sharingan eye. The lightening came down, and made contact with Naruto's arm, but a second later the lightening shot out of Naruto's left arm as it flew towards Kakashi, leaving the man with no time to react what-so-ever. The lightening attack connected with Kakashi's chest as his world exploded into pain, the jounin's body was sent flying through a tree and violently stopped as he hit a second one, cracking the fern in half.

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No words could describe what just happened. Sakura stared at her blond teammate as he landed gracefully onto the ground, still staring at where Kakashi's body lay. She couldn't believe that Naruto had turned an attack like that around on the infamous sharingan Kakashi.

"…Naruto," Was all she could whisper as she looked at the blond figure who stood completely still, with a hard look in his eyes.

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Tsunade, Shizune, and Shikamaru stared in horror at what had occurred. This was only a sparing match and Naruto had pulled off a most astonishing attack at the cost of injuring a fellow Konoha ninja.

Tsunade, losing her temper turned to look at Jiraiya, who had a large smirk plastered on his face. "What the hell is so funny?" Tsunade asked with a heated voice.

"That was a message for Kakashi," Jiraiya said without taking his eyes off of the blond. "Naruto is letting Kakashi know that he is getting serious now."

Shizune and Shikamaru looked at the white haired man as if he was crazy. "And he hasn't been taking Kakashi on seriously enough?" Shikamaru asked.

Surprisingly, it was Temari who answered the question, though she was also focused solely on Naruto. "Nope. Naruto hasn't used his true speed yet, and he also hasn't even used a single technique yet."

Tsunade, Shizune, and Shikamaru's eyes all widened as they released the second statement was true, but Shizune voiced her question on the first statement.

"Naruto-san isn't using his true speed?"

Now it was Jiraiya's turn to answer the question, "No, he hasn't taken off his weights."

"And," Temari cut in, focus still on the spar, "Naruto is on the offense."

With that said, Temari was met with odd and confused looks, when Jiraiya explained. "The boy's specialty is counter-attacks. He is good at offense, but when it comes to counter attacks he is unbeatable."

Conversation ended for the moment as the group of spectators turned their wide eyes and full attention to the fight.

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Kakashi breathed a sigh of relief as he watched his shadow clone poof out of existences, it had taken the entire attack, and he was relatively shaken. Naruto had obviously been trained excessively in counter-attacking. And it was probably safe to assume that the blond could put together a solid offensive attack.

Still keeping an eye on the blond Kakashi had to swear as Naruto turned towards his location in the foliage. The silver haired man decided to wait out what was going to happen, and see if Naruto could pull off an adequate offensive attack.

As Kakashi stared at the blond he saw his lips move ever so slightly, but no noise came out. That's when to the left of Naruto Sakura jumped from the foliage also and punched the ground, causing pieces of the earth to jut up everywhere dangerously as they made their way towards the scarecrow nin. As Kakashi deduced that he did not want that attack to be successful he jumped into the air, and looked for the blond haired threat, only to see the said boy crouching down, preparing to launch himself towards the cycloptic nin.

Kakashi prepared himself as he watched the blond, but was astonished as he felt a presence behind him. Kakashi turned to his right barely able to block a flying kick that was aimed at his head, but he was astonished as he felt three other hefty blows connect to his kidney, stomach, and back, sending the silver-haired man crashing towards the ground.

Kakashi was able to land on his feet but had little to time to react as he was attacked with more invisible taijutsu, he sensed the attacks coming but couldn't react fast enough to stop them. His sharingan was barely able to pick up on Naruto's speed making him appear almost as if he was a ghost. After being thrown through another tree Kakashi rolled to kill off some speed, then landed on his feet looking at Naruto. Sakura appeared behind the boy, and threw a handful of shuirken towards the cycloptic nin.

Kakashi, not willing to have to put up with anymore taijutsu attacks from Naruto, grabbed a kunai out of his weapons pouch and deflected only the shuriken that would have otherwise pierced his body, not once taking his eyes off of Naruto. What Kakashi had neglected to perceive though were the exploding notes on the inside ring of the shuriken. Sensing them a second before they went off Kakashi barely had the time to use a kawarmi before the explosion rocked the training field.

Kakashi was able to look at the explosion and was glad that he made it out of that are before those notes went off, that could have ruined his day. As the silver haired man was staring at the explosion, he felt the air around him barely shift, indicating something was within the vicinity. Kakashi whirled around, expecting to see or come across Naruto, but nothing was there.

Kakashi was disturbed from his silent search around himself by Sakura who whistled to get his attention. Looking up, the cycloptic nin saw that Sakura was holding a bell, along with Naruto, who was standing right beside her, with a grin of laughter on his face. Quickly the jounin looked down at his belt, and was confirmed with the sight of both bells missing from his belt completely.

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Shikamaru, Shizune, and Tsunade all watched in quiet amazement as Naruto, Kakashi, and Sakura started making their way over to the spectators of the match. The three looked at each other, not one of them understood how Naruto had gotten the bells from Kakashi without even moving.

"Sheesh, about time he ended that match." Temari said as she turned towards the group of confused looking people.

"Yeah, I think the gaki just wanted to show off his skills a little bit." Jiraiya said with a small smirk on his face, obviously proud of the blond that had ended the sparring match.

Tsunade recovered from her shock at the display Naruto had put on for all of them, and looked over to Temari. "You've seen Naruto spar before?" The slug sannin asked truly curious as to what the answer would be.

"Yeah I have, and so has Jiraiya-sama. We both witnessed Gaara and Naruto spar many times." Temari said, as she prepared to leave. "That is a match that you would have to see to believe."

Jiraiya snorted in agreement, "Yeah, Naruto sure does know how to make things interesting."

"Interesting?" Shikamaru inquired.

"Yeah, Naruto and Gaara go all out, and Naruto not only has beaten Gaara every single time, he has figured out a different way to beat him every time." Temari said, watching the group that just got done sparring make their way over to the spectators. "He even does it without using any of his old tactics."

At that statement Jiraiya had a small grow on his face. Then they all heard Naruto shout something incoherent.

That's when the party looked at the two conversing shinobi, then took a glance at the group with Naruto, who had reached the aforementioned group. Without acknowledging anyone else Naruto walked straight towards Jiraiya; as soon as they were side-by-side they both began walking together, with the rest of the group following behind them.

"Good job gaki." Jiraiya said as he stared straight ahead.

"Thanks sensei, but is there any advice that you could provide from that match?" Naruto asked as he looked towards Jiraiya, a serious look upon his face.

"For the most part you did excellent, your speed was a little slow though, and you need to make more of a theatrical entrance." Jiraiya summarized as he rubbed his chin in thought.

"Kay, I'll work on my speed more." Naruto said as he looked back towards the path they were all traveling on.

The rest of the group could hardly believe what Jiraiya had told the blond, his speed was unbelievable and Jiraiya told him that it was lacking. Their shock was added even more so when Naruto and Jiraiya started talking in a hushed whisper, looking back at the group following them occasionally. Tsunade unable to hear what they were conversing had ordered them to cease what they were doing. Which they obeyed, but after a few minutes they began communicating with sign language, peeving off the slug sannin even more.

Later on down the path, the group was making their way towards the Hokage tower for a meeting regarding Naruto. As they neared the building Temari and Shikamaru departed from the group saying goodbyes to the rest of the group as they continued towards the office.

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At the Hokage's office

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Tsunade sat behind her desk, with Shizune right beside her. Across the desk stood Kakashi, Sakura, Naruto, and Jiraiya, all watching and waiting for the Godaime Hokage to get the meeting underway.

Tsunade decided that it was time to start the meeting, "Well congratulations Naruto and Sakura on defeating Kakashi, within the first hour the test was administered." At the mention of this Naruto and Sakura smiled brightly, while Kakashi's head dropped a little bit.

"While during the spar I have decided that Naruto had shown a knack for fighting on the fly, and had performed outstandingly well; while Sakura, still skilled, had very little to do with this spar." Tsunade continued, deflating Sakura's smile a little bit. She knew she was skilled, and she also knew that Naruto had out performed her during the spar.

"I have a question Hokage-sama." Kakashi said getting the attention of everyone in the room, "I want to know how exactly you got the bells off of me person?" the lanky man asked Naruto.

Naruto brought his hand up to his face, and looking sheepish said, "I used speed alone, left an after image besides Sakura got the bells, and returned by Sakura's side, and handed her one."

Kakashi looked at his former student with a little fascination. What the boy said was truly impressive, he felt outclassed a little though, the blond had used superior speed to win the spar alone.

"It was due to this spar, and the recommendation of a fellow sannin, that I am now appointing one Uzumaki Naruto, of Konoha, the position of jounin." Tsunade said as she tossed the typical jounin vest to Naruto, who caught it deftly, with a look of sheer joy plastered upon his face.

Sakura felt envious towards her blond team-mate, before she realized that he was more powerful than what he let on, and she knew that the said blond deserved the position of Jounin.

"Thank you Hokage-sama." Naruto said, in a voice that let everyone know of his gratitude for the promotion.

"With that note you are dismissed, the two of you." Tsunade said with smile at the two teenagers. "But, Naruto!" Tsunade called out getting the boy's attention before he left.

Said blond turned around and looked at the Godaime Hokage, letting her continue, "I would like to see you in two days time, at 10 o'clock sharp. There are missions that need to be done."

Naruto face brightened even more before he responded, "Hai Hokage-sama." With that the two teenagers left the office, leaving the last four occupants.

A comfortable silence hung in the room after the two had left, leaving everyone to their own thoughts for the moment.

After a while Tsunade decided to break the silence, getting straight to business. "Is he capable of completing any type of mission?" the Godaime Hokage asked Jiraiya without looking at him.

The white haired man pondered the question for a second. "He is definitely able to complete all types of missions, except protection and delivery missions. He can't do it without having collateral damage to the targets of the mission." Jiraiya finished his analysis of Naruto's mission skills.

"So he should essentially be able to complete most type of missions I give him?" Tsunade asked, wanting to affirm what Jiraiya had stated. At the toad Sanin's nod she looked back towards the small pile of paper upon her desk. "Good, we have a back-up of high ranking missions that need to get done, as they are critical to Konoha's safety."

At that statement Tsunade turned her attention to the cycloptic nin, getting his attention. "On that note, Kakashi I have an A-rank mission for you to complete." Tsunade said as she reached into her desk, withdrawing a scroll. "It'll be a transportation and protection mission, seeing how Naruto lacks those skills." She said, handing the scroll to Kakashi.

"What are the mission details?" Kakashi asked as he opened the scroll, looking it over.

"To guard and defend a man named Takuni. He claims to have vital information on the Akatsuki, which may be true, we don't know. But opportunities like these don't come around that often so we are going to see what type of information he has." Tsunade said as she watched the cycloptic nin before her.

"You are to meet him in the Zeimakagure, a small village outside of the fire country's border. You are to use any method you deem necessary to bring Takuni back to Konoha alive." Tsunade paused, still analyzing the man in front of her. "Do you accept the mission?"

Not missing a moment, Kakashi replied, "Hai Hokage-sama." And with that Kakashi left the Hokage's office, ready beginning his mission.

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_After being dismissed from the Hokage's office_

Sakura walked next to the Naruto, as they both exited the Hokage tower. The blond had become an enigma to her, as she hadn't talked to him in the past 4 years. She hadn't even seen him in the past 4 years, and the changes helped the boy out quite a bit. He used to be short and an eyesore with his orange jumpsuit; now he was tall and had what appeared to be matching articles of clothing, something that caught Sakura off guard.

She turned her head towards the blond, "Hey Naruto,"

"Yeah?" the orange clad nin replied without looking at her.

"Do you want to get some ramen or something?" she asked him, knowing his weak spot.

Naruto looked thoughtful as if he was contemplating something. "I haven't had ramen in a while…Sure! I'll go with you Sakura." The blond said as he looked at her.

Sakura smiled lightly as they began walking towards Ichiraku's ramen stand. Sakura did note that he didn't seem to be quite as infatuated with her as he used to be. She didn't know if she should be happy or disheartened, but she put that in the back of her mind.

"So Naruto, do you have any good stories from your travels with Jiraiya-sama?" The pink haired girl asked truly curious to hear what Naruto had to say without the interruptions from the toad sannin.

The blonde's face lit up, and he smiled before he animatedly began talking. "Yeah I do, but I guess I have to start if off at the top. When we were in a rather large village that had a king, Jiraiya thought it would be funny to get extremely drunk. As he was getting hammered I was there training, and I made an off-hand comment insulting him, and he tied me up to VERY large log." Naruto paused to look at his companion's facial expression, which amused him.

Naruto then continued. "After he tied me up to the log, I yelled at him, and told him he was a worthless ninja. He didn't believe that. So I told him that I doubt he could kidnap the king's daughter, and he smiled and disappeared, leaving me tied to a big log in our training area."

As Naruto was about to continue they made it to Ichiraku's ramen stand, catching the blonde's attention. "AWESOME!!!! Ramen time!" With that the blond began ordering ludicrous amounts of ramen, leaving Sakura more enlightened than what she was before, but still confused as hell.

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Jiraiya had left Tsunade's office after Kakashi's briefing on the A-rank mission. He had left and made straight for his small camp he had inside the woods, preferring the wilderness to the suburban districts in Konoha. As he landed in his camping area he created two shadow clones, and set them off to do some work. After that the toad sannin sat down and withdrew a small little booklet and began drawing lurid things in it's pages.

This took place for about 20 minutes before another presence was introduced to the camp. There were no indications as to the newcomer's presence, but they held no hostility towards the white haired man bent over his book.

Naruto walked across the camp fire quietly, and began setting up his own tent, opposite Jiraiya's own across the camp fire.

"How do you like being back in Konoha?" Jiraiya asked, breaking the silence, as he looked up towards the blonde.

Naruto was quiet a moment before he responded. "Almost a little anti-climactic, I did miss this village, but it's exactly the same as we left it."

Jiraiya nodded in understanding, as the blonde kept working on setting up on his tent. Though the white haired man would never admit it, he was proud of the boy and what he had become. A comfortable quiet reigned for a few more minutes before Naruto was finally done setting up his tent, and turned to sit across the fire from Jiraiya.

"So how can I fix my speed, get it back up to par?" Naruto asked, breaking the silence.

"Keep doing the sprinting exercise, but try staying as fast as you can for as long as you can." Jiraiya replied, putting his book down, "and good job on not revealing any techniques to the sharingan yet, a good strategy."

Naruto beamed for a second and looked back towards the older man, "Will we be doing any missions together sensei?"

Jiraiya smiled, "You bet we will, but not for a little while yet. When we do we will dominate."

"Yeah we will, like that time in Iwa, against those 6 men," Naruto began.

"And 5 women, they had no idea what was going on. Brilliant plan brat, kawarmi with each other threw them off, and they didn't know how to handle it." Jiraiya smiled as he remembered the fight.

Naruto laughed out loud, "Don't forget the look on their faces when we started using their clothing for the kawarmis."

For a couple more hours, Naruto and Jiraiya both talked about scheming new strategies, laughed about past experiences, and thought up new ways to mess with an opponent's mind.

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_The next day_

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Sakura jerked awake by the sound of her mother dropping a plate to the floor, without realizing it she had a kunai in her hand, ready to defend her life at a moments notice if necessary. With the rude awakening, the pink haired girl turned her attention towards her alarm clock beside her bed. It read only 9:12. It was her day off, and she didn't have the pleasure of even sleeping in.

She made her way downstairs quickly and grabbed a bit to eat before leaving her house and shouting out a quick bye to her mother.

As Sakura made her way down the streets of Konoha she decided that she would train on her day off. After making it to her favorite training ground the pink haired girl started going through katas of her taijutsu style, putting everything she had into it. The practice of her taijutsu eventually wore her out after an hour of intense nonstop activity.

After Sakura had completed what she thought was a good taijutsu practice she sat down on the ground and calmed her breathing. The pink haired girl then meditated for another 40 minutes before she decided that was enough of a light training for the day. Standing up she made her way towards the heart of Konoha, planning on spending the day looking at shops and maybe getting a bite to eat at a nice restaurant later.

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Yamanaka Ino sighed as she walked through the crowded streets. She had just got done training with Chouji, which had so far made her slightly tired. Though Chouji may not look like it, but the boy is a fighter, and can put up a great spar when he wants too. Since the chunin exams the two of them had practiced very intensely, and made chunin during the second exam. Ino knew that she had made quite a bit of progress, and was now lethal at close range using her small size to her advantage, utilizing a taijutsu style that lands rapid and quick blows that eventually take a toll on the target.

But at the moment though Ino's mind was preoccupied. She hadn't been imagining that sand kunoichi walking next to her team mate, or the way he looked at her. Shaking her head as if to get rid of the images in her mind she pushed her way through the crowd and over to her favorite restaurant. Though it was a little pricey the girl loved eating at this restaurant, as it served almost anything that her heart desired.

After walking inside the girl looked around for a place to sit, analyzing everyone in the room at the same time. There were a few shinobi in this place, but her attention was quickly diverted as someone was calling out her name.

"Ino! Hey Ino!" A girl with brown eyes and her hair put up in two buns cried out, getting the blond girl's attention.

Making her way over to Tenten, Ino asked a simple question. "Tenten, why do you have to be so loud?"

The brown eyed girl had the decency to blush before she moved on, "Why don't you sit with me today? You look like you need someone to talk to."

Ino smiled at the genuine look in Tenten's eyes before she accepted the offer and sat down next to the girl. Over the course of the next 20 minutes and both of their meals Ino talked about the situation she was in, and how she felt when she witnessed Shikamaru walking with Temari. Tenten was adding her own comments, and making Ino feel better the way the brown haired teen was putting down Temari.

"But, yeah. You shouldn't worry too much about Shikamaru, he is a smart guy and I think he can figure out that she isn't really right for him." Tenten said as they sat and ate their food, enjoying each other's company.

"So have you heard anything about Naruto returning?" Tenten asked, trying to start another conversation.

Ino looked up from playing with what was left of her food, "No, I haven't heard anything. He's back? I wonder how much the kid changed." Ino said, now contemplating what could have changed about the blond haired boy she knew from her past.

"Yeah, Neji-kun said that he heard Naruto was back in town, and he wanted to spar with him. Wanted to see if anything has changed since the chunin exam I guess." Tenten added to the conversation.

Both girls were interrupted as the bell to the restaurant door was rung, indicating another arrival. The two girls looked over to see a head of pink hair. Ino called out to pink haired girl getting her attention, and indicated for the girl to join her friends sitting already.

Sakura walked over to the two, "Hey Ino, Tenten. Are you two leaving soon?"

"Nope, we are just having a talk, want to join us?" Ino answered.

"Sure, I would love to." Sakura said

As Sakura sat down and ordered her food the three of them talked about nothing important, until Tenten asked Sakura the same question she asked Ino.

"Hey Sakura," Tenten inquired.

The pink haired girl looked up from her food, raising an eyebrow, "Yeah?"

"Have you heard if Naruto is back in Konoha?" Tenten asked.

Sakura smiled before responding. "Yeah he is, today will be his second day home. He arrived with Jiraiya-sama yesterday, but Kakashi-sensei, him, and I had a spar to test how our skills have improved over the years."

Tenten was quick to respond. "How good has Naruto gotten, Neji wants to spar him, see if he is still better than him."

Sakura snorted and almost choked on her drink, causing her two companions to look at her. "Tenten, do you think Neji could beat Kakashi in a fight?" The pink haired girl asked.

Tenten shook her head, knowing that as a senior jounin Kakashi would beat Neji in a fight.

"Well," Sakura continued, "Neji wouldn't stand a chance against Naruto now."

It was Ino's turn to speak up. "What do you mean? He is a Bakyugan genius, and he is a jounin, Naruto would be hard pressed to beat him in a spar."

Sakura looked at her good friend and spoke quietly, "Naruto was able to beat Kakashi single handedly yesterday. I barely did anything, it kinda pissed me off. But watching Naruto made me realize that I would have just gotten in the way."

Both Ino and Tenten's eyes widened as Sakura continued telling them the events that took place yesterday during the spar.

"Naruto also didn't use any techniques to beat Kakashi-sensei, he only used pure speed, and taijutsu alone. He did use a kunai and shuriken with an exploding note, but that was it. When Kakashi tried using a Raiton jutsu Naruto countered it without using any techniques, he only used his body." Sakura continued remembering every little detail about the fight.

"He moved so fast, leaving after images, and I couldn't even keep up with his speed. I felt more like a spectator than a participant in the spar." Sakura finished up. Looking at her two companions, she noted they both had wide eyes.

Tenten Sakura another question, "Is he as fast as Lee?"

Sakura looked at the brown haired girl and nodded, "Yeah, he disappeared whenever he moved, and he supposedly wasn't using his _true speed_. Jiraiya-sama and Temari were talking about it yesterday, and I guess he uses weights also."

Tenten eye's widened even more, and Ino was looking at Sakura like she was crazy. A few seconds went by, everyone digesting the information, until Ino decided that she wanted to break the silence.

"It's people like him that make me feel like I will sum up to be nothing." Ino sighed, as Tenten and Sakura looked down and nodded their heads in agreement.

"Well, enough with this serious oppressing stuff, how much has Naruto changed? Is he hot now that he is almost a grown man? What type of clothes was he wearing?" Ino shoot out question after question to the pink haired girl, who tried to answer as many as she could, leaving out some embarrassing ones that would make her blush. Tenten was listening in on the Q and A interested in had changed about the blond also.

Sakura just sighed and realized that she wasn't going to get out of this easily.

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Jiraiya watched Naruto stumbling back and forth across the clearing they made as a makeshift training ground. He was finishing up on his sprinting exercise, taking him roughly an hour and a half. The blond in question looked like he was going to fall down and break at any moment, which is what Jiraiya expected him to do, hence the reason why he was there.

The white haired man smiled, the blond knew how to push himself to the limit. As Jiraiya watched, Naruto fell over forward, queuing the white haired man that his workout was done for now. Walking over to the gasping blond Jiraiya leaned down and started doing hand seals. 24 seals later he applied chakra to the tips of his fingers and pointed towards Naruto's right shoulder and touched a seal underneath the clothes lightly. The seal altered the way muscles moved in regular gravity, a seal that made it harder for the muscles to react and more difficult to move. It felt as if they were under a different gravity pressure, when really the person's muscles were just placed in a seal that changed reality.

After Jiraiya unsealed Naruto, he picked the blond up and carried him over to the camp and laid him on his sleeping bag. It'll take Naruto a few minutes to recover from the training.

Sitting down across from said boy's sleeping bag, Jiraiya took out a small book and a pen, and started drawing certain things, smirking and giggling to himself occasionally.

The white haired man looked up from his drawings as he noted Naruto started stirring. Begrudgingly Jiraiya put away his small notebook, telling himself that he would have more time to do it, and looked at the beaten blond before him.

"You should probably drink some water, gaki." Jiraiya said as he tossed a canteen over the fire. Catching the canteen Naruto started gulping down copious amounts of water. Having his fill of water, Naruto looked at the older man sitting across from him.

"What should we do now, sensei?"

Jiraiya put his hand up to his chin and rubbed it thoughtfully, "I don't know. We could go into town and find something to do, it is only about noon, we have half a day to find all sorts of trouble to get into."

Naruto smiled at the idea of it, "Sure let's do that."

With that Naruto got to his feet slowly and started making his way towards Konoha, with Jiraiya walking closely behind him, both talking jovially about the fun things that they could do in Konoha

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_4 hours later_

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Tsunade had to keep from growling at the crowd of people that were in her office. Jiraiya and Naruto sat in the middle of her office, with seals around them, and their hands and feet tied with every knot tied known to man. With chakra strings. Blindfolded, and gagged. With a room full of ALL the ANBU the village had to offer. Somehow the two in front of her had just managed to cost the village 250,789,231 ryo.

Shuffling through a few sheets of paper, she looked at the two in front of her, "How? That's all I want to know, is how you managed to do this. I mean you cleared out an entire connect four house of money, destroyed a Hyuuga branch family house, destroyed 21 stalls of street vendors, and found with the fire daimyo's 19 year old kidnapped daughter tied to Naruto's leg." Tsunade said, trying to conceive of the whole ordeal.

"Bvt vt vnt mht mwnt dwn." Naruto tried defending himself, finding it difficult to speak with the gag in his mouth. Tsunade nodded to an ANBU and the shinobi moved forward and un-gagged Naruto.

"Bah, but that wasn't what happened." Naruto said exasperated.

"Really? Then explain." Tsunade ordered.

Naruto nodded nervously, gulped and began. "Sensei and I were walking around town looking for something to do, when…"

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_flashback 4 hours earlier_

Naruto walked next Jiraiya as they were walking through the gaming district of Konoha. There were street vendors everywhere with their carts trying to sell their merchandise to the people walking the streets. Naruto was then taken into a gaming house that was holding a connect four tournament, for a prize of 1,000,000 ryo. Plus there was a cool looking trophy. As the two entered the tournament they both progressed through the ranks, and eventually made it to the finals, against each other.

As they faced off people were upset that these two who obviously knew each other were facing off for 1 million ryo, but they couldn't do anything about it. As the game wound down, it turned out that they had somehow tied the game (it's impossible), and they split the cash prize, and grabbed the trophy, ready to leave the game house.

That was before an upset person cried out that they were thieves and had stolen their money and trophy. So as gracefully as Naruto and Jiraiya could, they made a run for it, leaving the gaming house. On their way out though, Naruto tripped, knocking into one street vendor's cart, causing it to fall over and collapse knocking over another and another, all the way down the street. Since Naruto tripped, he fell into Jiraiya's back, who then proceeded to fly headfirst into the carts on the opposite side of the street. This caused all of those carts to collapse on each other, destroying each stall and its merchandise. A man who owned the cabbage cart even had his cart catch on fire, destroying his cabbage's.

After that incident Naruto and Jiraiya had an angry mob following them, and they had to make a get away. So they both decided that they could probably lose them in the woods, so they took a sharp right and made a mad dash in the woods. As they were running they still heard the mob behind them, and eventually they ran into a clearing with a big white house with guards everywhere with the Byakugan.

Looking for an exit Naruto looked to the left, there were guards there looking at them. Naruto looked up on the roof of the house, there were still guards there looking more agitated though. Naruto looked to the right, there were guards that looked like they were ready to attack. Seeing no other option Naruto made a dash forward, his bag of money swaying everywhere, Jiraiya following the blond.

Naruto smashed through the wall of the house, with Jiraiya right on his trail, along with the guards, who were very angry, and the more angry mob. As they made their way through the house, the foundations were destroyed, and after everyone ran through the house, it collapsed. Thankfully though, it was an empty house, and no one got hurt in the collapse of the building.

After they were clear from the building Naruto and Jiraiya separated, and disappeared from the irate mob, and angry guards.

Later, in an alleyway, Naruto emerged. His head looking everywhere for a sign of movement, and eventually decided that it was safe, and got out of the dumpster he was hiding in. As he stood there, he waited. Jiraiya was going to be there any moment. The blond wasn't disappointed.

Jiraiya arrived, though he had an odd sack, slung over his shoulder, and the man appeared to be very distraught, before Naruto could ask a question as to what was happening, Jiraiya bent down and tied a rope to Naruto's leg. Upon questioning Jiraiya revealed that he had kidnapped the fire daimyo's daughter because she recognized who he was, and after he kidnapped her in front of her guards, he realized that wasn't probably the greatest of moves.

All the two had to do was lay low for a couple of hours, the heat would blow over. They were then promptly found by the group of the fire daimyo's guards, who had alerted the ANBU, who had in turn alerted the whole of Konoha's shinobi about the predicament at hand, and had them

It took 2 hours, 12 minutes, and 5 seconds to apprehend one Jiraiya. It took 2 hours, 24 minutes, and 55 seconds to apprehend on Uzumaki Naruto, and they were tied up, sealed, blindfolded and gagged, and escorted by every ANBU in Konoha right before Tsunade.

_End Flashback_

"…And that is what happened Hokage-sama." Naruto said with a straight face, finishing retelling of the events that lead up to that particular moment in time. Then Jiraiya started muffling something, and Tsunade had his gag removed.

"Thank you Tsunade," Jiraiya began, before he coughed. Finishing his spasm he continued, leaning towards Naruto, "And I did that with out a drop of sake."

Tsunade sighed at their antics; she didn't know how to punish the two before them. It almost all seemed like an accident of events that went horribly wrong. The slug sannin felt a smile spread across her face, the story itself was so inconceivable that if she didn't have so many agitated people at the events, she wouldn't have believed it herself.

Tsunade was interrupted though, as Naruto coughed to get her attention. She looked at the two men she had tied in her office, and alarms started going off in her head instantly. Instead of being thoroughly tied up, Naruto sat with his arm outstretched, holding hands with Jiraiya, who had his arm outstretched from the ropes that entangled the rest of his body.

"Sorry, but me and the gaki have to get back to our camp. He has to get a good night's rest before a mission you know." Jiraiya said with a slight smirk on his face, while Naruto had a full blown smile plastered on his face.

Tsunade watched as the two of them created a few seals, very quickly. Then a plume of smoke appeared. Tsunade felt the molding of chakra, but when the smoke cleared there stood a man that looked like someone combined Naruto and Jiraiya into one body. As she looked at the clone in front of her Tsunade glanced at the seats that held her prisoners.

As Tsunade looked at the seats, she felt the hair rise on the back of her neck, as the seats were empty. Looking back at the clone the slug sannin watched as the clone gave everyone a peace sign.

Tsunade's eye twitched several times as the clone burst into smoke, filling her office with a foul smell and blinding everyone in the room, leaving Naruto and Jiraiya to get away, without any sort of punishment.

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_Day of Naruto's mission_

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A blond haired teen made his way towards the Hokage's office slowly, knowing that dozens of unseen eyes were staring at his back. As the teen opened the door to the Hokage, he was almost afraid to speak to the woman who sat behind the desk.

Stepping into the office Naruto noted the lack of Tsunade's assistant, Shizune. However there was someone else there standing against the wall with her arms crossed and eyes closed. Naruto got the familiar sense that she looked familiar, but couldn't place it. Sitting down in front of the Hokage, Naruto sat absolutely still, waiting for Tsunade to give her orders, and mission briefing.

"This A-rank mission is an assassination mission. There are two targets, and little time, hence the reason why there are two of you participating in this mission." Tsunade began, in a serious tone.

"One of the men you are to assassinate has recently been leaking information about Fire Country's defense, towns, shinobi, political leaders, and the like. He is leaking potentially deadly information, so we need him eliminated as quickly as possible." Tsunade said, pushing a folder over the desk towards Naruto, who picked it up and began looking through the contents.

"A retired shinobi? What rank was he when he retired?" Naruto asked without looking up from the file of the target.

"He was Jounin. Very decorated, many A-rank mission, and participated in the war with Iwa." Tsunade answered.

Naruto studied the folder in his hands a moment longer before looking up at Tsunade, "And the other target?" The blond teen asked.

"An Akatsuki spy, located on the opposite side of the same city as the other target, we have viable information indicating that he is a legitimate spy for Akatsuki." Tsunade continued, handing the other folder to Naruto, who in turn to it and began looking through the folder.

After a couple of minutes of studying the folder Naruto looked up at the Hokage, and said, "I accept Hokage-sama."

"Very well, you have a span of three days to get this mission completed, and back to Konoha for debriefing." Tsunade began, "Your partner on this mission Naruto, is Mitarashi Anko."

At the mention of her name, Naruto turned to look at the woman. Anko in response remained completely motionless, but stared Naruto straight in the eyes.

"You may begin your mission." Tsunade said. As soon as she stated this, Naruto was out of his chair, and heading towards the door with Anko hot on his heels. Upon reaching the door first, Naruto opened, and let Anko go first. As she passed the blond teen, she whispered something quietly to him, causing the blond to respond, "Pfft, yeah right, you only wish I do."

Tsunade watched the two of them leave her office, wondering if she had done the right thing, putting these two on the same mission. Her mind was distracted a moment later though as Shizune came in with a stack of paper work, most of it from Naruto and Jiraiya last night.

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AN: Sorry for the really long chapter, I didn't plan on making it this long, but things just kept coming to me. There will be more action in later chapters, and the book isn't going to be just comedy, but I try to add light humor here and there. There is a pairing but I am going to keep that a secret for those of you who read this.


	3. Chapter 3

AN: I hope not to make this chapter as long as the last one, but if it happens, I apologize. I personally enjoy long chapters, and that might rub off in my writing.

Also I changed the attack on Gaara, Deidara and Sasori don't attack Gaara until a few days after Naruto returns.

Here it goes. I don't own Naruto.

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Mitarashi Anko wasn't one to be crossed. She was a deadly kunoichi, she wore fishnet clothing, and she was attractive (according to most men's standards). She also wasn't used to dealing with shinobi she thought were worthless. As she dashed through the trees at high speed, she glanced behind her. There was that same stoic face that she had become accustomed to seeing behind her.

The blond brat had told her that she may set the pace. He may not have meant it, but the purple haired woman took it as a challenge, and Anko wasn't one to back down from challenges. As they sprinted through the tops of trees, Anko couldn't deny the fact that she was beginning to feel fatigued from the continuous sprint for the past 6 hours.

What really bugged her was that the newly appointed jounin didn't look winded at all. His breathing was even, not rushed, or loud gasps, like hers. His shoulders' didn't sag, and his feet weren't dropping. If he was hiding his own fatigue, he was concealing it better than Anko thought he could.

She chewed the kid out at first; she couldn't believe that he was her partner. She remembered him from the chunin exam, he was a midget, and had very little talent. She made a point of reminding him 6 hours ago. She remembered his face as she went on her rant. But what she remembers more was how he responded to her insult.

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_6 hours ago_

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Naruto swiftly walked out the door to the Hokage's office, following Anko closely. Eventually they were walking side-by-side; each had their eyes forward, not looking at each other.

Eventually Naruto broke the silence between them when they left the Hokage building. "Are you prepared to leave straight away Anko-sempai?"

Anko looked at the blond out of the corner of her eye, "Yeah, I have everything I need for this mission with me."

Naruto nodded, "Then I suggest that we leave soon, the quicker we complete this mission the better."

That was it, "Listen brat," Anko said turning to look at the blond straight in the eyes, "You may have fooled the Hokage, but I know that you do not deserve to be a jounin so young. I remember you from the chunin exams, a short kid with a big ego, and no talent. On this mission I will be in command, and I don't want you to think that you have what it takes to run a mission like this." The purple haired woman said harshly.

As Anko was saying this she was watching the blonde's eyes. She was expecting to see them recoil, widen, water. She was expecting them to do something, but as she spoke down to the blond haired teen his eyes never once wavered. They just met her gaze, never once leaving her own eyes. This almost unnerved Anko as she was at least expecting the boy to recoil, or at least argue back. But he remained quiet, through the entire speech.

After a couple of seconds of meeting her gaze, Naruto said in a voice that promised danger. "You have no idea what I am capable of." The blond said slowly. As he spoke Anko watched his eyes, face, and body language to see if he was bluffing or lying. But his body didn't move, his facial expression was one of solitude, and she felt like he was boring a hole in her soul as he stared at her with his eyes. They held a cold fierceness that she hadn't seen for nearly 20 years. And that was when she believed that there was more to Naruto than the 13 year old kid taking a chunin exam.

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_Present_

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Naruto landed on the tree branch next to Anko. They were nearing the target village. Inside the mission statement was the location of the place where they were supposed to go. Gadateucha.

Gadateucha was a village just inside the border of rock country. This was essentially enemy territory, so that meant both Naruto and Anko would have to be very careful. Part of the mission statement was to infiltrate, assassinate, and get out of there undetected.

"Anko-sempai, which target would you prefer?" Naruto asked quietly. They were a ways outside of the village and in a relatively secluded area, so Naruto thought it would be a decent place to discuss this part of the mission.

Anko was quiet a moment, before she replied. "I would like to take the spy. That leaves you with Zenatei, that rat has ran out of time." The purple haired woman muttered the last piece.

"Alright sounds like a plan, we have to get into the village now without being detected and find a place to stay for the night." Naruto stated, looking at Anko for confirmation. At her nod he continued. "We should look for any possible escape routes as soon as we enter the village though. Examine the types of shinobi, samurai, or mercenaries they have here, and double check any patrols going through the city. That way if we get caught we can have a rough idea of how long they will take to get to us, and in what direction they will be coming in." Naruto finished.

Anko looked at the blond with a raised eyebrow; obviously the kid knew his stuff sufficiently well. That was a summary that she was running through her own mind as well. She had realized that the blond deserved a bit of respect for coming this far, and obviously being well prepared for anything.

Now it was Anko's turn to speak, "Alright, well from here on out, you have to be invisible, make no noise, and above all do not get caught. After we scale the wall we will have to dash into an alley and make our way into the street slowly, as to not draw attention to ourselves."

Naruto nodded, then added, "We must hurry Anko-sempai, we are running out of daylight, and not many villagers travel through the streets at night." At that comment Anko nodded, before she took off into the foliage, with Naruto moving behind her as her ghost.

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As the two of them approached the wall they moved with stealth that made both of them disappear into the night. There was only one chunin guard standing atop of the wall, and he wasn't paying very close attention. There was about a 50 foot gap between that guard and another guard, just standing there.

Naruto looked at Anko, he realized that she had pushed herself quite hard for them to reach the village in such good time, but that was her choice, and he wasn't one for arguing with an assassin teammate. The blond could see slight signs of fatigue hanging in her posture, but nothing too severe.

He looked back at the two chunin guards standing atop of the wall. How the blond wished the two of them could just henge into civilian and walk through the gate, but a mission like the one they are on does not need such risk. If they had been caught, the mission would have been blown, and Konoha could have been traced to the killing of two people, making diplomatic relationships more strained than they already are.

Watching the guards Naruto realized that the time for both of them to clear the wall would be happening very soon, and by the tensing of Anko's shoulders, Naruto could tell that she was making a good timing.

The guard closest to them turned and looked away from where the two of them were hiding in the foliage. Since the other guard had been busy scratching something on a parchment for the past 4 minutes, it was a safe time to clear the wall and find a shadowed alley.

Without making a noise Anko sprung from her hiding spot, and using as little chakra as humanly possible she jumped. Having used enough chakra to jump over the small wall the purple haired woman was silently soaring through the air. As she was making her descent she made a perfect silenced roll, no noise came from Anko as she then proceeded to walk into an alley, and disappear into the shadows.

Turning around to wait for Naruto to clear the wall, Anko almost killed the blond she had been waiting for. He was standing right across the alley looking at her and obviously waiting for her to lead the way.

Anko looked at the blond, and followed his gaze to the kunai that she stopped herself from throwing at him. Feeling almost guilty, Anko mouthed silently, "Sorry." Naruto nodded his head and smirked, receiving the silent message.

Naruto followed Anko as she made her way out of the alleyway they were both in, and blended into the crowd of people, walking down the street. Now both ninja were surrounded by cover and noise so it was a green light as to talking at regular volumes.

"Alright, let's find a nice hotel, to stay the night." Anko said as she lead the blond through the street of people. It was about 5 o'clock, and the street of the village was full of people.

Cutting her way through the sea of people Anko eventually found a descent looking hotel, and glanced behind her to make sure Naruto was still following her. Said blond made eye contact with her, and she knew that he was right behind her, if not a few feet behind her.

Walking into the hotel, Anko looked around, analyzing everything that came to her sight. She memorized the quickest escape route, noticed that there 14 people on the ground floor, and that 4 of those 14 people were shinobi, and paid little attention to her and Naruto. Slowly Anko made her way to the front desk she knew Naruto was right behind her, and she could feel his presence.

As she reached the front desk Anko talked to the kind looking girl in uniform. "We would like 1 room please, for one night." The purple haired woman said as politely as she could. Nodding the girl behind the desk shuffled through a few papers, and grabbed a key that was attached to a keychain with a number imprinted upon it.

"Alright, your room is on the top floor, which is also the third floor, and your room number is 285. Thank you for choosing Yatata Hotels and have a good night." With a small nod Anko grabbed the key and made for the stairwell. Both Naruto and Anko ascended the stairs in utter silence, preferring to be inside their room before they were to speak.

Reaching the room, Anko used the key to unlock the door, and walked in, while Naruto closed the door. Flopping down on one of the two beds in the room Anko looked at watched as Naruto walked around the room and checked things.

"What did you see while we were on the street?" Anko asked the blond as he made his way over to the window that had the drapes down, blocking any view to the outside world.

Naruto was quiet for a second studying the world outside before he answered, "They have more shinobi than they do samurai, and I found no mercenaries. They had groups traveling around; hidden from the public eye, much like a hidden village's ANBU would operate." Naruto said as he made his way to his own bed.

Anko nodded her head. "Yeah, I was thinking that they might be trying to set up their own little shinobi village here, all they need now is a kage." Silence reigned for a few seconds before Anko broke it, "So do you want to scrounge the village first and figure out half of the route those 'ANBU' take, or do you want me to?" Anko asked, looking at the blond.

"How bout neither of us do that, and get a full night's sleep. I sent out a group of 6 kage-bunshins to watch the groups. They will shadow the ninja around the city, and when they have done their job they will disperse and give me the info, and I'll relay it to you." Naruto said as took off his sandals and laid back onto his bed.

Anko looked at Naruto, and curiously asked, "When did you make the clones?"

"When we first entered the village, and when we were walking the street, I created them very discretely." Naruto said with a slight smile, leaning back on his bed. "Once the clones do their job, we could probably complete our mission tonight, what do you think we should do Anko-sempai?"

Anko looked away from her blond companion and looked up at the ceiling. "We could, it would be in the dead of night when we would move out to complete the mission. Our targets could possibly be asleep, making our job easier." The purple haired woman frowned, "But we already paid for the room." She added as an after thought.

"It's not our money we used to rent out the room, and we could leave the key on the bed when we leave." Naruto said, thinking through the problem.

Anko nodded at the mention of the money not being theirs, she was thoroughly convinced. "Alright, we will complete the mission tonight, what should we do before the mission starts though?"

"We should try to get some sleep, my clones will dismiss themselves, and when I receive the information I will wake you, we can discuss the rest of the details from there." Naruto offered.

Anko nodded, remembering how tired her legs were from the run earlier on in the day. Laying her head on the pillow she allowed herself to attempt to fall into a light sleep, anticipation of the action that was bound to take place later in the night.

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Naruto called out Anko's name in the black of night, knowing that she would probably kill him if he were to shake her awake.

Within a moment Anko was standing up in a battle stance with a kunai in hand. She looked at Naruto through the dark and saw that it was time for the mission to begin.

Naruto then began to brief Anko about the guards, their routes, and the numbers they had with them, and the rank of them. He also relayed the information that her target was across town, while his was relatively near their current location.

"What should the plan be, Anko-sempai?" Naruto asked the purple haired woman.

Said woman was quiet for a moment, thinking about the best course of action. "Is this hotel closest to the route to Konoha?" Anko asked.

"No, Zenatei's building is closer to the route out of the village than this hotel is."

Anko nodded, "After we both complete our mission, we will meet up on your target's roof, and make our get away. You will have to wait a little while for me to meet up with you on the roof, cause I have a ways to travel."

Anko and Naruto looked at each other and nodded, Anko making her way to the window, while Naruto threw the key on the bed closer to the door. As the two of them jumped to the roof of the hotel Anko was about to take off before Naruto stopped her.

"Anko-sempai," Naruto paused as the purple haired woman turned to look at him, "Good luck."

Anko looked at Naruto, quiet for a second before a grin broke across her face, "You too gaki." Then she took off, leaping across the roofs of buildings soundlessly, leaving Naruto there with furrowed brows.

"Why does everyone have to call me gaki, I'm almost an adult now, and they just keep on calling me gaki, it's a useless thing. A gaki isn't even supposed to be used as it is now, it's actually from the word…" Naruto mumbled as then jumped from the roof, mimicking Anko as he moved soundlessly and stealthily.

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Anko stood silent as she watched her target sitting in his room. It was about 2:30 in the morning, and here this black haired man was sitting in a chair with the lights off. At first it appeared to her that he was asleep in the chair, but then she realized that he had too much muscle action and control going on for that to be possible.

The spy was using himself as bait trying to catch anyone of lesser talent, they would silently sneak into the room, assuming he was asleep, and when they were in range for him to attack, he would get the advantage of a surprise attack, and probably a hidden weapon.

Anko smirked; it had been a while since she had come across anyone that was so ready to fight off assassins. Very subtly Anko created a bunshin, and sent it forward, with the real Anko right behind her bunshin.

When Anko reached the closed window, she swiftly opened it wide, and sent her bunshin in, remaining back, out of range for the spy. She watched as her bunshin neared the man feigning sleep, and right before her clone was about to attack, the black haired man shot forward with a kunai in hand, slicing through what would have been Anko's neck. Instead the man hit nothing but air as the bunshin disappeared.

Anko readied herself as the man was now in the middle of his room, wide open for attack. Inhaling her breathe sharply Anko shot forward, seemingly invisible to the human eye. Her target had enough time to turn his head and look at her before she sliced at the man's neck with a kunai of her own. Since she had moved too fast for him to react properly, there was nothing he could do.

Anko's eye's widened as her kunai sailed through the man's throat, dispelling a bunshin. She hadn't even taken that possibility into account. Whoever the target was they were a very competent shinobi.

Sensing a stab aimed at her back, Anko spun around the attack, getting to the target's exposed back. Anko had to duck under a quick reverse slice; after she ducked Anko kicked one of the man's shins, causing said man to be off balance, leaning forward. Acting quickly at the opening, Anko stabbed the man in the leg, and withdrew the kunai quickly. Since she stabbed the man in the leg, his hands went to the injury to protect it, leaving his entire upper torso wide open to attack, which Anko gladly took the open invitation.

Swinging her arm faster than the target's eyes could follow she successfully slit the man's throat; cutting through the jugular vein, carotid artery, and trachea, sending a spray of blood into the air. As a follow up to her brutal act she pushed the man onto the bed before he fell to the ground making more noise than she would have liked.

Anko stood above the dying man and watched with hardened eyes, as he desperately grabbed at his neck trying to breathe, until he looked at Anko and launched the kunai at her face as hard as he could. Unfortunately it wasn't nearly that hard, as his strength was leaving him very rapidly.

Instead of dodging the kunai, Anko reached out and grabbed it by its hilt stopping the assaulting weapon. A suicidal person doesn't throw kunai into walls. Anko continued to watch as defeat spread across the man's face. After a couple of minutes the man stopped moving and had his eyes open with an empty look in them. Anko moved forward and checked the man's vital signs.

"Target eliminated" Anko whispered quietly to herself, before she whipped her kunai off, riding any evidence of it ever being hers, and put it in the man's hand. She looked back at the spray of blood that littered the ground and a small portion of the wall. He was standing at the end of the bed when he cut his own throat and fell backward on it, and accidentally stabbed himself in the leg in the process, then bleed to death.

She ran through the scenario in her mind, it was a legitimate possibility. It wouldn't have been the first time someone had died that way. Turning she escaped silently through the window, and started making her way towards the second target's building.

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Naruto silently ran down a third hallway. The blond had to avoid two groups of two guards. Zenatei was no fool and knew that his life was in danger, but the security surrounding the middle aged man was almost too secure. Naruto frowned at the possibility of the man knowing something out of the ordinary about Konoha. The idea didn't sit well with him.

Finally making it to the door of his target Naruto paused. Inside the room were two guards, around chunin level, and they weren't paying attention according to the feel of their relaxed chakra. Naruto realized that another group of guards were about to make their round down this hall; one guard was standing right by the door, where it swung open, and the other was sitting in a corner with his arms crossed.

Drawing a kunai silently, Naruto opened the door and pushed with all his might capturing the one beside the door between it and the wall behind him. While he was opening the door to the room Naruto threw his kunai straight at the other guard who was still sitting down when the kunai pierced his throat. Pushing off the door as hard as he could, Naruto cleared the room and grabbed the hilt of the kunai still lodged into the neck of the sitting guard and sliced through the other side of his neck.

After retrieving his kunai Naruto threw it at the door; as the kunai was in flight the chunin guard pushed the door off of him, successfully closing the door, before the kunai pieced the second guard's throat. Naruto stood slowly and watched as the guard slid to the ground, trying to gasp for help, or cry out, but Naruto had pierced his wind pipe, and it was futile attempt.

Eventually everything in the room became motionless; looking over to the bed Naruto noted that Zenatei was still asleep. Silent as the night Naruto walked over to the sleeping man, covering his mouth with his free hand Naruto slit the throat of the balding middle aged man. Zenatei's eyes shot open at the sudden pain, only to look straight at Naruto's, whose were cold and solid. The bald man struggled for a couple of minutes before he eventually became motionless; after Naruto checked the target's vitals, he turned and silently left the bloody room

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Naruto stood in the shadows of the roof of his target, waiting for Anko. Escaping the halls was just as easy as it was the first time. The guards probably didn't know that their client was deceased. As Naruto saw Anko in the distance making her way towards the roof he was on, he relaxed; she had made it out of any immediate danger, and probably completed her mission. Though she wasn't exactly nice to the blond, she was at least a fellow Konoha shinobi. He wouldn't wish any harm to befall a fellow ninja.

His relaxed state was short lived however, as Naruto's body suddenly became extremely rigid. A tall figure slowly stepped out of the same shadow that Naruto was concealed in.

Naruto watched the man as he moved with long strides out of the shadows, moving more like a ghost across the roof tiles, making no noise and matching Naruto's stare with every step. The man had short silver hair that spiked over to one side of his head; he was unusually lean, almost like he hadn't eaten in a couple of days. He was dressed in what seemed like very fine black and white battle armor; there was dried blood on the armor, letting Naruto know that the man didn't take the time to wash the armor. The man's face clear and unblemished, his mouth a thin line due to the fact that he had his lips pursed. His brow was furrowed, almost as if he was frustrated with something.

Then Naruto really looked into the man's eyes. They were a green color, a sickly green that made one think of poison when they looked at the man. What shook Naruto to the core though was the look in the man's eyes. A crazed look was what Naruto saw clearly, but behind that crazy glaze in the man's, there seemed to be something else lurking there. Naruto was interrupted from his thoughts on the man, by the man himself.

"What a lovely night for a stroll, isn't it?" He asked, with a voice that had a hint of madness in it.

Naruto remained quiet as he continued to watch the man walk back and forth in front of him. Just by the way the man was walking, looking at Naruto, and how he talked, Naruto realized that this man was truly dangerous. He was screaming ninja, and probably only revealed himself on purpose to Naruto; a shiver went down the blonde's spine.

"You're a quiet one aren't you? Well, alright, I guess I can do most of the talking." The man said in the same edgy voice. "Who are you?"

Naruto remained quiet as he studied the man before him, trying to figure out why he would ask a question like that, but Naruto found no reason and did the only logical thing he could think of.

"Why do you ask who I am?" Naruto said with a level voice.

"Ahh, answering questions with questions. This game could get on my nerves." The man spoke animatedly, using his body and arms to help speak, sending Naruto even more on edge; he could throw an attack from anywhere at anytime.

"I asked you who you were, because I want to get to know you." The man answered.

"…Who are you?" Naruto decided to test the waters.

"There you go again, and if you must know I am Ashi." The man said with a high pitched laugh. Causing the hair on the back of Naruto's neck to rise.

"…I am Naruto." Naruto said curtly.

"Just Naruto?" Ashi inquired.

"Yeah."

"Well alright, all I wanted to know was who you were." Ashi turned, and started walking away before Naruto called out stopping him in his tracks.

"Why did you want to know who I was?" Naruto asked, body still tense.

Ashi turned to look at Naruto out of the corner of his eye. "Because you might be a problem for our organization."

Naruto's eyes narrowed as the conversation continued. Anko would be arriving any second now and this Ashi character seemed to be a powerful shinobi, and if he were to fight him it would definitely get attention.

"Your organization?" Naruto inquired.

"Yeah, a group of people, kind of like me, that have a specific goal in mind." Ashi answered still walking around Naruto.

"What is your organization's goal?" Naruto pushed further trying to get information out of Ashi.

The silver haired man let a wide slow smile spread across before he answered.

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Anko ran across the rooftops as quietly and as fast as she could. She was watching Naruto and a tall unknown man intently. Anko had become furious when she first saw the blond talking to the man on the roof, but then she realized that Naruto was rigid, and was ready for an attack anytime.

That made Anko slightly nervous; who was this man that was talking to Naruto? Was he another assassin assigned to kill the people they had eliminated? The purple haired woman growled, anticipation wasn't her favorite emotion.

Finally arriving on the roof Anko landed in a quiet crotch on a side of the roof close to Naruto. At her arrival, the silver haired man looked at her, while Naruto kept his face stoic and watched the man's every move.

"Ah, so the partner finally made it. That's good news, Naruto-san we can finally end our conversation." The tall man said in voice that made Anko's skin crawl.

"Unfortunately we must be getting on our way, so I guess it's almost convenient timing." Naruto said with a level voice still not taking his eyes off of the silver haired man. Anko and Naruto watched as the man walked slowly approaching them with each step.

"Yes, I have to get on my way too, Naruto-san. But remember this Naruto-san, we will meet again." Ashi said with a smile as he stopped a ways from him and Anko.

Ashi smiled one last time before he removed his chest piece of armor revealing his entire chest and arms covered with exploding notes and within a moment was about to ignite them all. Naruto's eyes widened before he went into action, not having enough time to shout to Anko he turned around and blurred out of existence attempting to get to Anko before the explosion occurred.

Just as the blond reached Anko the explosion rocked the entire building they were standing on, the blast violently tossed Naruto and Anko into the air, and through a building's wall, both landing in the same room.

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Two figures walked across the sandy planes of the desert. Both cloaked in cloaks with red clouds on them, each had straw hats that hide both figures faces from the world. One of the figures seemed to be crawling on all fours, and had a substantially large hump in their back. Both figures walked silently next to each other, approaching what seemed to be a large wall made out of sand or mud that was quite a ways off from them. The two figures hoped that their inside man kept up his bargain and terminated the guards in the front of the village. Because the two figures really didn't want to fight guards along with a jinchuuriki.

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Naruto jerked awake. Despite the pain in the side of his head, Naruto stood up quickly, looking around the ruble that had been the side of an apartment complex. Hearing a groan, Naruto wiped his head around and found a large couch tipped over. Moving quickly Naruto jumped over the couch and landed on the other side. There was Anko, unconscious and in a twisted heap. Her leg was pointed at an odd angle, and it looked like she had a large gash above her right eyebrow.

Sensing many shinobi organizing and making their way to their current location, Naruto picked up Anko gently and set her on his back before jumping out of the recently made hole in the side of the building, landing in the shadows of the alley. Moving extremely stealthily, Naruto weaved in out of alleys, finding cover from the cover of the alleys whenever a group of ninja passed by overhead.

Moving closer and closer to the wall surrounding the village the defenses started tightening up. Nearly getting spotted a handful of times, Naruto had used quite a few acrobatic displays and brilliant stealth tactics to avoid getting seen. Finally making it to the alley that Anko and him had entered the village in, Naruto had to swear under his breathe.

Upon the wall there were guards galore. Chunin, genin, and even a few jounin were standing along the wall, many more than what there had been when Anko and him had entered the village. Sensing a search group coming at them from behind Naruto was forced to swear a second time; the search group would be passing right by their current location within a matter of seconds, and he couldn't make a run for it now.

Focusing enough chakra for the jutsu, Naruto prepared to run and find a place to set Anko down. The ninja in the area would certainly tell what jutsu he had used, and will be hot on his trail. Gathering enough chakra, Naruto focused on a tree branch a good distance away from the wall of the village; releasing the chakra Naruto disappeared using a shun-shin no jutsu, with Anko strewn across his back.

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Pain. That was the only thing that Anko knew in her world as her mind slowly came too. The explosion had sent her and Naruto through a wall, and that obviously had harmed her more than it had Naruto, as she watched the blond from a distance set up hastily made traps. A few of the traps were ingenious, and she almost smirked, had it not been for the fact that what felt like an ANBU team was making their way to their location.

Anko looked down at the source of most of her pain, her leg. More specifically her right shin, it looked like she had fractured both the tibia and fibula, judging by amount of swelling there in the middle of her shin, and the odd angle her ankle was laying at. Bringing her hand to her head, where another sensation of pain was located, she found that her right eyebrow a large gash in it, and there was a streak of blood that flowed from the gash down the right side of her nose, missing her eye. Next was a slight pain in her chest cavity; a throbbing was more of the pain instead of stabbing. That meant she had probably broken a rib, and no internal damage.

Looking back to the blond she watched him create a kibaku-kage bunshin, and had the clone use a technique that hid him underground. Standing directly over the clone Naruto stopped moving and faced the direction of the incoming shinobi. Anko knew that she was well hidden, but she could see the small opening that the fight was going to take place in. She looked at the blond and noticed that he seemed perfectly fine, minus the presence of debris and a small amount of blood on his clothes.

Anko felt a little apprehensive; it was a team of high level ninja traveling towards them, and Naruto was going to fight them all, by himself. She would be hard pressed to get out of a situation like that without any major injuries. Watching Naruto stand in the middle of the clearing unmoving and just standing there made her feel easier though. Now all Anko could do was watch Naruto and see if he could fend for both of their lives.

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Naruto stood in the middle of the small clearing. Keeping his breathing calm and even; they were 40 paces away. The blond realized that if he wanted to get out of this situation alive, with Anko receiving no damage meant he would have to go all out.

25 paces now, The blond kept his eyes glued on the spot where the first enemy would enter the clearing, they would try circling him, cutting off all escape routes. Most of the time that wasn't a good thing, but that was exactly what Naruto wanted these shinobi to do.

5 paces. Here they are. Naruto's body tensed, ready for anything that the enemy ninja might throw at him.

The first shinobi, dressed in black standard ANBU garb, landed on the tree branch that had a trip wire placed in it. Sensing that he had activated the trap the ANBU jumped into the air, only to trip another wire that sent a hail of shuriken and kunai right at him, his only defense was to try and parry as many as he could with the only kunai he had out.

The ANBU still falling to the ground had kunai and shuriken in his body, and cuts and gashes from the brutal trap. As he landed on the ground he tripped another wire, setting off another trap that launched kunai at high speed behind him at his back; he heard a high pitched whistling noise, indicating thrown weapons at high speed. He only heard the weapons, but could not see them as the embedded deep into his back, ending his life.

Naruto hadn't moved but he mentally kept track of the amount of enemies he had to worry about. There were 9 to begin with, now there were only 8 to deal with. Turning to his left Naruto watched as ANBU set off a very concealed exploding note in the tree underneath the ANBU's feet. Now there were only 7.

Naruto sensed a very fast attack coming from behind him, turning his head quickly Naruto caught a glimpse of the ANBU as they charged him with a kunai ready to plunge into his back. Moving faster than the ANBU could keep up with Naruto dodged the stab, grabbed the man's arm and pulled him forward taking the shinobi off guard and helpless for a second.

After pulling him forward, Naruto pulled the man's arm downward while he brought his knee up quickly successfully landing the blow to the man's elbow, breaking it at the joint. After hearing the bone crack, Naruto used another shun-shin to disappear out of the clearing, leaving the man there cradling his arm before the kibaku-kage bunshin exploded underground, creating a small crater where the bunshin had been hiding.

Naruto appeared behind another ANBU, who sensed him, and brought their leg up in a wide arched kick. Naruto ducked under the kick, and kicked the only posted leg, breaking the bones in the leg, causing the ANBU to fall to the ground. Grabbing a kunai out of his holster he threw the blunt side at the writhing ANBU, hitting the ninja in the side of the head, knocking them into unconsciousness. Now there were only 5 left.

Using another shun-shin, Naruto appeared in the small clearing. The blond stood still, Naruto's body tense from anticipation of another attack from the ANBU. He didn't have to wait long as two ANBU jumped out of the brush sprinting at him. Naruto stood in a ready stance, analyzing how the two enemies moved together in practiced synchronization. One of the ANBU had drawn a short wakizashi, while the other held two kunai in a reversed grip. Naruto frowned; this could be a bit difficult.

The ANBU with the wakizashi slashed at Naruto's neck with frightening speed, while the partner ANBU tried slashing at the back of Naruto's knees. Both were closing in before Naruto jumped into the air, pulling his body so that he was parallel to the attacks. After both attacks had passed by him Naruto lashed out, kicking the ANBU with the wakizashi in the chin hard. Using the connection with the chin as leverage Naruto spun in the air and reared his fist back and connected it to the other ANBU's face.

The two ANBU jumped back after Naruto had landed on his feet, coming out of the attack unscathed. Naruto didn't have much time to wait before he felt chakra being summoned; looking into the brush Naruto heard a feminine voice cry out, "Hisan yurasu no jutsu!" Naruto watched as 3 large rocks shot out from the brush and flew at him at high speeds.

Reacting rather than thinking Naruto formed hand seals faster than the eye could follow, concentrating very hard Naruto cried out, "Yurasu tama no jutsu!" Focusing the chakra needed he released it at the last second.

As the rocks were flying at Naruto, small portions of the rock broke off and flew at even faster speeds towards the caster of the original jutsu. Naruto barely had enough time to dodge the large rocks as they crashed into the spot where he had been standing a second earlier.

Naruto heard someone cry out as rapid small pellet sounds were heard throughout the small clearing, before the sound of a body slumping to the ground. Another unconscious KO, 4 left. Naruto counted down in his mind.

Looking around him Naruto noted that the two ANBU with the wakizashi and dual kunai were gunning for him again. Running out of time Naruto decided that he would have to injure one of the two shinobi.

As they sprinted at him side-by-side, the one with the kunai launched himself into the air, preparing to have a two sided assault. Naruto saw the strategy and realized he would be at an extreme disadvantage; reaching into his kunai holster he threw a handful of shuriken, distracting the ANBU in the air with the shuirken. After he threw the kunai Naruto used a burst of speed to meet the ANBU with the wakizashi head on.

The ANBU, though unprepared for the sudden head on attack tried a sloppy and desperate slash at Naruto's chest. Still moving quick Naruto made it within the man's guard before the wakizashi could cut him Naruto. The blond then proceeded to wrap his arm around the arm with the wakizashi in it; sensing a punch rather than seeing it, Naruto clenched his jaw as the ANBU with the wakizashi connected with his head rather brutally.

Hearing the air-borne ANBU land Naruto tightened his arm around the arm of the wakizashi and punched the shoulder of the captured arm twice. The ANBU with the captured arm tried withdrawing his body as the blond punched his exposed shoulder joint, but had no where to go.

Sensing the ANBU with the kunai speeding towards him from behind Naruto pushed off the wakizashi ANBU and ducked onto the ground. The backwards momentum caught the kunai ANBU off guard as Naruto collided with his legs, vaulting the ANBU forward and into the air. Quickly reaching into his same kunai holster Naruto withdrew a kunai and threw it at the ANBU sailing over the blonde's head. Naruto watched as the kunai embedded itself deep into the man's ribs, and watched as the kunai ANBU crashed into the wakizashi ANBU sending them both sprawling onto the ground.

Using pure speed this time, Naruto disappeared from the small clearing as the exploding note connected to the kunai in the ANBU's ribs went off. It was a pre-wrapped kunai, and they were handy in a situation like that one. Now there should only be 2 ANBU left, but where were they?

Naruto looked around, knowing where Anko was located he kept spinning around looking for the final two ANBU. He got an answer as he sensed someone making a break for it, running straight at Anko.

Naruto was about to cut the ANBU off before he heard, "Yuuen hinotama no jutsu!" Naruto watched with wide eyes as several large fireballs made their way towards the blond.

Flying a set of hand seals, Naruto cried out, "Ookawa narabi no jutsu!" releasing a large amount of water from his mouth meeting the fireballs head on, each jutsu canceling one another out, leaving the clearing full of super-heated steam. Quietly Naruto created a single kage-bunshin, before he disappeared running to Anko's aide.

The kage-bunshin was made with an abnormally high amount of chakra put in its system, began flying through another set of seals right after it was created. "Kyousei shippu kaze no jutsu." The clone whispered to itself as it finished the jutsu. A large wind then proceeded to instantly push the super heated steam onto the attacking ANBU, with the steam and possible cuts from the wind, the clone dismissed itself as it heard an anguished cry from the ANBU. Whoever it was wasn't dead, but they were in pain.

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Anko had to try and catch her breathe. Even though she wasn't participating in the fight down in the small clearing, she still couldn't believe what had happened. Naruto, her partner for this mission, had just essentially decimated an entire ANBU team, single handedly. It wasn't a Konoha ANBU team, but he was still able to do defeat them all pretty easily.

And the traps the blond had come up with, they were genius. If he had enough time he could probably turn an ambush into a slaughter of the ambushing team. Anko didn't like how he used exploding notes so flippantly though. The point of the mission was to avoid detection, and here Naruto goes and destroys a portion of the forest with exploding notes, and one kibaku-kage bunshin.

Anko was then disrupted from her thoughts as an ANBU stepped into the clearing, and with one glance at her, he made a lunge for her. Anko, armed with a kunai was not going to go down without a fight.

All of a sudden her world shifted and she was on the back of Naruto who was now sprinting very fast away from the village Gadateucha. Anko wasn't one to be confused, and she didn't like how she was now away from immediate danger.

"What the hell happened? I was about to kill some loser ANBU who was trying to mess with me." Anko said through gritted teeth, trying to hide her pain from the constant jostling of her leg.

Naruto smirked before he explained, "I created another kibaku-kage bunshin, and had the clone do a kawarmi with you, getting you out of immediate danger, and getting rid of that last ANBU." Naruto explained. When he was finished a loud explosion rocked through the forest back at the clearing. Anko smirked, despite the pain, at the thought of the destroyed clearing, and the ninja that were probably just showing up.

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Naruto ran at a dead out sprint for 3 hours running in complete silence with Anko on his back. Leaving her mostly to her own thoughts, she couldn't believe the pace he was running and how he had kept it up. There was no way any tracker was able to even keep up with him.

As if Naruto read her thoughts he slowed his pace down to a slightly fast run. "What are your injuries, Anko-sempai?" Naruto asked as he continued running.

Anko frowned as she thought of them, "Broken lower leg, a large cut on my forehead, and I think I might have a few broken ribs."

Naruto nodded at the information, he didn't want to show the concern he actually felt from another Konoha shinobi being injured, as you didn't want any enemy ninja to see it, and they could get a confidence boost, and fighting another enemy isn't what Naruto wanted to do at this particular moment, he needed to get Anko to the Konoha hospital so she could properly heal.

"We are almost at the gates of Konoha Anko-sempai. You will be in the hands of professional healers in a short amount of time." Naruto said as he began to pick up the pace once more.

Anko frowned at the blond carrying her, "Don't call me Anko-sempai, it makes me feel, old. You can just call me Anko brat." Anko said in light humor despite her pain. "Or you could just call me Anko-sama." Naruto turned to look at her out of the corner of his eye and smiled at the last comment.

Anko nodded and looked at the bright early morning, it was probably 5 or 6 o'clock, and they had completed their mission within one day. She was starting to feel a little tired and fatigued, more than usual. After a few more minutes of running the gates of Konoha came into view Naruto continued to run towards the hidden village.

The two chunin guards standing guard by the front of the gates watched as an orange clad figure was running at them with what looked like a person slung over his shoulder. The guards looked at each other before they both got in a battle ready stance, not knowing what to expect from the figure in the distance running at them.

Naruto saw the two guards, and decided that he didn't have time to deal with the politics of getting in the village right now; he had an injured person with him. Reaching into his hidden pocket he withdrew his passport card, stating he was a Konoha ninja and was allowed back into the village he threw it at the two guards. The card flew steadily and embedded itself between the two guards. The guards followed the card as it flew into the wall, and looked back to watch Naruto jump halfway up the wall and used chakra to run over the rest of the wall. The guard closest to the passport card grabbed it and started following Naruto.

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Naruto turned his head and looked behind him. There was that pesky guard that was following him, despite the guard being quite a ways away from the blond, he still had a pursuer. Looking forward once more Naruto ran a little faster to the hospital, getting Anko to the hospital was priority number one.

"You could have stopped and explained to him the whole situation, you know right?" Anko asked from her perch atop Naruto's back.

"Yes, but it would have taken time. You should be placed in medical care as soon as possible." Naruto said as he pulled off quite an acrobatic maneuver avoiding a clothes line. Unfortunately only Anko saw the display, as the streets below were mostly empty, and the people who were down there couldn't keep up with the speed Naruto was moving at.

Naruto looked at the Konoha hospital; it was now closer than ever, he only had a couple more blocks to get Anko there. Naruto increased his speed again as he made his way to the hospital. Focusing chakra to his legs, the blond launched himself into the air in a straight path to the front doors of the hospital.

Landing adroitly, Naruto then proceeded to rush into the hospital, knocking a man into the hard enough to leave his imprint on the wall before he fell to the ground, unconscious.

"I need medical attention here!" Naruto shouted, indicating the purple haired woman on his back.

"Geez, no need to yell so loud, I have pretty bad headache." Anko said as she cringed at the volume of the blond that was carrying her.

"Here we go sir, we got a wheelchair for her, we can transfer her to a bed later when we get her in the a room so we can examine her." A Nurse said as she wheeled over a wheelchair for Anko. Then as Naruto gently laid Anko in the chair, a group of nurses walked over and began preparing Anko for the exam, splinter her leg, and putting dressing on the gash on her forehead.

As they were helping Anko out one of the nurses holding a dressing to her head asked, "What happened to you ma'am?"

"I was blown through a wall by an explosion." Anko replied wincing in pain as they re-aligned her foot.

"You are shinobi I presume correct?" the nurse asked again.

"Yes, we both are." Anko answered for Naruto.

"What type of mission did you just get back from?" The nurse continued to inquire, as the rest of them seemed to be finishing their jobs.

"A stealth one." Naruto answered without thoroughly thinking through what he had just said. The blond didn't want to say assassination and he just mentioned the first thing that came to mind.

The nurses then proceeded to look at Naruto and Anko like they were a little crazy. "You were blown through a wall because of an explosion?" the nurse asked Anko again.

Aggravated by being asked the same question twice, Anko spoke through gritted teeth. "Yes."

"And there was an explosion, which makes loud noise and destruction, on a stealth mission?" The nurse asked.

Naruto had the decency to blush before he answered. "Yeah, when you put it that way it sounds worse than it is. Something came up, and we had to improvise."

At the end of the questioning, one of the nurses took Anko and began wheeling her away, while the one who had done most of the questioning looked at Naruto strangely before following his team.

Naruto sighed before he turned and walking out of the Konoha hospital; only to run into the chunin guard that he had evaded before by scaling the wall. Naruto looked at the guard and realized he was out of breath.

"Are you alright? I have a perfectly legitimate reason as to why I didn't get che-" Naruto was then interrupted as the guard held up his hand.

"No need to explain. You are a legitimate Konoha ninja, and had to take a fellow shinobi to the hospital after returning from a mission. We see stuff like that all the time." The guard explained.

"Oh, alright. Why did you follow me all the way here then?" Naruto asked.

The guard reached into his belt, "Because you left your ninja passport card." The guard withdrew his hand, and in it was Naruto's ninja passport.

"Well thanks, that saves me a trip." Naruto said as he accepted his ninja card.

"Your welcome, it gives me something to do on guard duty, it sucks." The guard said as he slowly turned and began his trudge back to his post at the front gate. Naruto felt a little sorry for the guy, then turned and started walking down a street with a small smile on his face.

Until Naruto realized that he was going to have to give the mission debriefing to Tsunade alone. And explain that during the assassination mission that required stealth and silence above all, had two buildings nearly destroyed, half a team of ANBU that shouldn't have existed were dead, and a large portion of a forest near the village Gadateucha was destroyed.

Naruto almost cringed at the thought of dealing with the angry Hokage. "This isn't going to be a good day, I can just tell," Naruto muttered to himself as he slowly made his way to the Hokage tower.

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AN: Sorry the very ending of this chapter kind of sucks, I was rushing it I think and it didn't turn out that well. But besides that thank you all for reviewing, it makes me feel special.

Besides that here is the list of jutsu used in this chapter.

-Kibaku-kage bunshin no jutsu- Exploding shadow clone technique

-Hisan yurasu no jutsu-Flying rock technique

-Yurasu tama no jutsu-Rock bullet technique

-Yuuen hinotama no jutsu-Grand fireball technique

-Ookawa narabi no jutsu-River line technique

-Kyousei shippu kaze no jutsu-Great hurricane wind technique


	4. Chapter 4

AN: Here is the 4th chapter, hope it turns out alright and that you guys like it.

I do not own Naruto.

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Naruto looked out the windows, the setting sun was a nice sight to see, and it gave Naruto something else to think about besides the serious topic that was being discussed at the moment. The blond shinobi was in the middle of his debriefing on his mission with Anko.

Naruto had to retell every event that happened, but the blond decided to withhold a small part of information on the conversation he and the Ashi character had. Naruto had waited for most of the day before he decided that it was needed to go to the Hokage's office.

Once he arrived he scheduled a meeting with Tsunade; then after being permitted into the office Naruto had to wait a little while more for Tsunade to find Jiraiya and Kakashi. After they arrived Naruto told everything that happened during the mission, but kept part of the conversation with Ashi to himself.

Now Naruto sat in a chair in front of the Hokage's desk; all eyes in the room were on him. He had just finished giving his mission report and explained all that happened in detail; besides not telling a part of Ashi's conversation. The blond planned to talk with Jiraiya about that. Tsunade had been pissed at first about the collateral damage done to the town and forest, but that couldn't be helped. What held the attention of the room, was the information pertaining to the silver haired man Naruto met.

Naruto looked over at Kakashi, he had his one exposed eyebrow furrowed, looking intently at the ground. Probably thinking of the events Naruto replayed for them. Tsunade had much of the same aura as Kakashi, looking intently at something on the desk. The blond shifted his eyes to the side to look at Jiraiya, who seemed to be waiting for Naruto to look at him, because as Naruto made eye contact with the toad sannin he gave the blond a look that told Naruto they would be talking latter, away from the office.

After a few minutes of every brewing in their thoughts at the disturbing news about the shady character called Ashi, Tsunade decided to break the silence. "The mission was completed though, despite all the interferences?" Tsunade asked.

"Hai, Hokage-sama." Naruto replied.

"And you are sure that you removed your forehead protectors, and remained anonymous when in the village? Did anyone identify you as Konoha shinobi during the mission?" Tsunade pressed, making sure that Naruto and Anko had done the job to the best of their abilities.

Naruto sighed inaudibly before he answered. "Hai, we removed our forehead protectors. And I don't think that we were identified on this mission, but I believe that it's unlikely it happened." Naruto answered, looking Tsunade in the eye.

Grabbing papers on the desk in front of, Tsunade began to organize them before she spoke. "Alright, well that wraps up the mission report for the most part," Tsunade started, "but I am ordering everyone to keep the information on this Ashi character a secret for now. Whatever their organization is, they haven't made any moves that have put Konoha in immediate danger."

Naruto, Kakashi, and Jiraiya nodded at that, each standing up. Naruto and Jiraiya then made their way to the door, and walked out of the office.

After the duo left, Kakashi turned towards Tsunade. "They will probably talk quite a bit about what happened on the mission." The cycloptic Nin said, predicting what the apprentice and sannin would do.

Tsunade sighed before responding, "Yes I know, but I would rather Jiraiya and Naruto talk about the mission to each other, which is probably what is going to happen. It's better than either one of the two talking to someone who doesn't need to know that we have another possible threat." Tsunade replied, looking back at Kakashi she added, "I have another mission ready for you, if you are willing to accept. Be back in my office at 6 o'clock for the briefing of the mission, you can decline or accept the mission then." Tsunade added.

The silver haired man nodded before he reached into his back pocket and withdrew a little red book. This action brought on a cough of annoyance from the Godaime Hokage. Kakashi at least looked a little embarrassed as his eye curved upward, indicating a smile under that mask, before he vanished in a swirl of leaves; leaving Tsunade alone with a rather large stack of paperwork and leaves all over her office floor.

Looking at the pile of paperwork and the small pile of leaves on the office floor, Tsunade's eyebrow twitched. To get this mess cleaned up she would have to tell her secretary to call a cleaner. That would take paperwork to set up an appointment; then the payment of the cleaner would be necessary, which would bring on more paperwork. The cleaner probably had to make sure that no one in the office was allergic to anything, yet again more paperwork for her to fill out. Tsunade cursed and swore at Kakashi for doing this impudent thing to her.

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After leaving the Hokage tower the blond haired shinobi walked down the streets of Konoha with Jiraiya right by his side. As the two companions walked the blond felt many eyes staring at him. He had been receiving more and more attention recently, as he was in public more often. The stares confused Naruto a little bit, for they weren't the regular stares of hate he got when he was a kid. No these stares were ones of hope, and joy, which confused the blond; making a mental note to ask someone about it later, Naruto glanced at his companion and noticed a serious and stoic face upon Jiraiya.

This bothered the blond a little bit; he knew when the toad sannin had that look, it meant something serious was going down. The white haired man was probably thinking of the mission report he gave earlier in Tsunade's office.

Continuing their walk through the crowded streets Naruto was still receiving glances and stares. Ignoring the stares for the most part, Naruto walked down the street with Jiraiya by his side. Each walking in silence, Jiraiya probably thinking about the meeting, while Naruto was just enjoying the atmosphere.

"Let's talk at the camp." Jiraiya said, finally breaking the silence between the two of them.

Looking at the white haired man with a quick glance confirmed Naruto's suspicion; the stoic face was still in place. "Alright sensei." Naruto replied, and at that confirmation both ninja disappeared wordlessly off the street. No one noticed their disappearance, or when the disappeared, leaving only a slight breeze that passed by where they had just been standing.

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Both ninja appeared in the clearing that Naruto and Jiraiya had lived in since they returned to Konoha. They had appeared by the fire pit with seats on opposite sides of the fire pit. Sitting down first Jiraiya didn't have to wait long before Naruto quickly joined him on the opposite side of the pit, giving each other their full attention.

The blond knew what the toad sannin was going ask, it was going to pertain to the Ashi character. Deciding that it would be better to get the whole thing over soon, the blond spoke first. "What do you want to know sensei?" Naruto asked.

"What happened with Ashi on the roof?" Jiraiya responded almost instantly, answering Naruto's question with a question.

"Alright sensei, I needed to talk to you about this. In Tsunade's office I left a part of our conversation out, as it particularly disturbed me." Naruto started, watching his sensei for any signs of disappointment that could show up in his facial expressions.

Naruto felt relief when he saw that no signs of disappointment came when Jiraiya answered. "I suspected that you did, the conversation had an odd change in it, and the other two probably know you withheld some information also." Jiraiya said to Naruto giving his thoughts on the matter.

Checking for disappointment again, and seeing none, Naruto then began to tell his sensei the entire conversation that he and Ashi had.

_Flashback: Mission with Anko_

"Your organization?" Naruto inquired.

"Yeah, a group of people, kind of like me, that have a specific goal in mind." Ashi answered still walking around Naruto.

"What is your organization's goal?" Naruto pushed further trying to get information out of Ashi.

The silver haired man let a wide slow smile spread across before he answered. The smile sent a large shiver down Naruto's spine. "The typical take over the world stuff, and rule over everything; it's all a bit too morbid for me though." Ashi said in an uninterested tone.

Naruto remained silent as he watched the silver haired man walk slowly around him, preparing himself for an attack at any moment if necessary.

"I would much rather have it my way, but he is running the show." Ashi spoke slowly, voice dripping with cheery malice. "To take control of the world the way he wants is going to take too long."

Naruto's ears perked now, listening intently at what the man was saying, he was releasing information on his organization. "How is 'he' planning on taking over the world?" Naruto asked the man, still very much on edge.

"He wants to strategically capture and destroy certain cities villages, and use the conquered people as his warriors. In this fashion he would eventually gain enough of a force to attack a large hidden village if he had enough of a force." Ashi said slowly as if the subject bored him. "Not how I would do it, and not what I want." The silver haired man mumbled the last part.

Naruto looked at Anko as she rushed to their position sitting atop the roof. She would be arriving shortly. "What do you want other than to rule the world then?" Naruto asked as he watched the man closely.

Turning abruptly to look at Naruto dead on, Ashi smiled a smile that made Naruto's blood run cold, and spoke in a voice that made the hairs on the back of Naruto's neck raise. "I want to burn the world to the ground, and everything in it." Ashi spoke slowly, punctuating every one of his words, looking like he enjoyed the idea of it too much.

At this development Naruto's eyes widened, the unease growing rapidly in the pit of his stomach, making the blond almost sick to his stomach being around the man.

Ashi smiled as he watched Naruto, "It seems like your friend will be joining us very shortly. Should I give her a warm welcome in the form of a deadly katon jutsu? She seems like the type to enjoy pain." Ashi said, watching the way Naruto's eyebrow twitched. "Maybe a raiton jutsu would be suiting, as they can be very painful, with some slow deaths, mind you." Ashi spoke only to Naruto as Anko landed on the roof, behind the silver haired man.

"Ah, so the partner finally made it. That's good news, Naruto-san we can finally end our conversation." The tall man said, now the center of attention as both Anko and Naruto were staring at him.

_End Flashback: Campsite_

"And that is what he said to me." Naruto finished, remembering the meeting with the tall skinny man. During the whole retelling of the event Jiraiya remained quiet, most likely contemplating things that Ashi had said. Jiraiya remained quiet for a few minutes in deep thought about what Naruto had told him.

Naruto watched his sensei, and eventually broke the silence with a question he wanted answered. "Sensei, do you think it's a real threat?" Naruto asked. The blond truly felt that the man's claims about an organization were real. He just hoped that he wasn't the only one who did.

Jiraiya remained quiet for a few seconds before he answered. "Yes, I do. But I don't think that this organization will be a threat for a little while. In a matter of time something will come up and if this organization has any cahoots with it, then we'll know if it's a real threat." Jiraiya said, analyzing the situation.

Naruto nodded, "I'm surprised that we haven't heard of them until now, they must be competent shinobi to keep themselves under the radar of your spy network." Naruto added as an afterthought.

Jiraiya nodded silently in agreement, that bit of information was almost a worrisome piece of information. To be able to hide from Jiraiya's spy network was not something easily done, as he had spies everywhere, in every sense of the word.

Despite the conversation that they had just finished having Jiraiya was starting to get hungry, and the white haired man would bet that his companion was probably hungry as well. And they both tended to get grumpy and agitated when they were grumpy. So Jiraiya changed the subject.

"So, what do you want for dinner?" Jiraiya asked Naruto.

Naruto rubbed his chin in though, "We had fried salmon and pineapple yesterday, so how about grilled chicken and rice tonight." The blond suggested as his stomach rumbled at the thought of the appetizing chicken.

Jiraiya smiled, that was one of his favorites. "Alright, chicken and rice it is." With that the white haired man then proceeded to wipe out a small metal grill, package of chicken, and box of rice out of thin air as Naruto prepared the fire for the grill.

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Far away, two figures floated above a village; one standing on a creature with wings that resembled some type of bird. This figure wore a black cloak with red clouds on it, with blonde hair fashioned in a style that let a piece of hair cover one of the figure's eyes. A rather disturbing sight was the bloodied rags on the left side of the figure, with no arm present.

The opposing figure stood in a sphere of sand that was partially open, revealing the face of the other figure. Spiky red hair sat atop a stoic face, black rings surrounded the light green eyes, and a kanji for love on the figure's forehead. He wore a red trench coat underneath a grey leather chest plate.

Gaara watched the Akatsuki member as he held an odd shape in one of his hands. This particular Akatsuki member had a keen likeness for explosions, and that meant that whatever was in his hands was probably another deadly example of the blonde's obsession.

Watching the blond as he threw the object into the air, the object then burst into smoke. Narrowing his eyes Gaara continued watching. As the smoke cleared away it revealed a large figure, twice the size of the bird that the Akatsuki member was riding on. At this sudden development Gaara's eyes widened, he had an idea what the blond Akatsuki member was planning, and began gathering chakra for what was to come.

"Such a pity," Deidara started with a slight smirk on his face. "This village has come to this fate, only because they had a resident jinchuuriki." After the blonde Akatsuki member spoke this the large clay figure began descending upon Suna.

Gaara watched, his pulse quickening, as the bomb plummeted towards his home, he was only moments away from gathering enough chakra to stop that monstrosity.

Right when the clay bird was above Suna, a large flash of light and an audible boom was produced by the explosive clay. As the clay exploded Deidara's smirk grew even wider, his target had fallen right into his trap.

As the dust cleared away, it revealed a rather large floating blanket of sand that had stopped the blast from harming the village in any way. The shinobi in the streets let a breathe go that they had been collectively holding as they watched the bird descend upon them.

Gaara felt a wave of relief wash over him as he saw that the sand had done its job properly. The relief was short lived however, as out of the corner of his eye Gaara spotted a clay bird, the size of a crow, come flying at him from the opening in his sphere.

In an instant Gaara had closed the hole in his sphere, and hardened the outer shell. The red head still felt the heat and shockwave inside his protective sand barrier, but it had successfully done its job again. Gaara stood completely still for a few more moments, thinking to himself.

'I cannot beat this opponent by myself.' Gaara concluded, looking down at his right forearm. Reaching down he rolled the sleeve up quickly, and looked at the seal in the middle of his forearm. 'This is out of my hand now, I need his help, otherwise Suna may no longer be.' Bringing his finger up to his mouth Gaara bit through his sand armor and drew blood from his thumb.

With the small amount on his thumb, Gaara then wiped it across the seal on his forearm. Immediately it began to glow a bright blue. After his task had been completed, the red head looked up, hearing a small scratching noise.

Gaara froze. There, inside his protective sphere of sand, were small clay centipedes. More started coming in from all over the place, entering the sphere of sand. Gaara realized that what was meant to protect him had in the end defeated him.

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Deidara watched as all of the clay centipedes entered the sand shield and successfully made their way through the sand barrier, detonating once inside. The blond Akatsuki watched in with a grin as the sand violently and suddenly disfigured from within.

Being patient enough to watch the rest, Deidara continued to watch as the sand sphere then proceeded to slowly melt off the red head, falling straight down into the village. After a few seconds of the sand falling, the Shukaku jinchuuriki was left alone in the air, levitating for a second, before a sudden plummet to the earth.

Before the red head could complete his downward journey, Deidara caught the jinchuuriki in his clay bird's tail, and began sailing towards his partner who was waiting for him.

Little did Deidara realize how much danger he and his partner were now in as the seal on Gaara's forearm continued to pulse blue.

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Jiraiya looked at his student; the blond haired teen had a stoic face that screamed silent anger. This battle face of his reminded him too much of his other student. Naruto had a reason to be angry though. It looked as though the Akatsuki had made a bold move, and attacked the one-tailed demon jinchuuriki, Gaara of the desert, Kazekage of Suna.

Jiraiya recalled not only moments ago, when he had just served himself and his blond companion the fried chicken and rice he had made for the two of them, before a seal went off on the inside of Naruto's right forearm. Looking at the seal pulsing a dark blue Naruto looked up at Jiraiya and wordlessly they both shun-shined to the Hokage's office. Interrupting her from her paperwork she hadn't been too bothered by their sudden visit. What had bothered her though was the news that the two of them told her.

Jiraiya knew of the seal Naruto had placed on Gaara, and certain other individuals. He helped the blond develop it; the seal was like sending a chakra S.O.S. to the other part of the seal. And if Gaara was using it that meant something serious was happening to him, and he probably did need backup.

And here the white haired man stood, beside his student. He knew what he was going to do, and he approved; it had to be let out of the bag eventually. Also, one of Naruto's closest friends was in danger.

Tsunade looked at Naruto with his emotionless face and hard angry eyes and couldn't help but feel a little intimidated. They looked so much like the fourths that people might start mistake Naruto for his father. Looking at Jiraiya, the slug sannin noted the same hard look in the man's face, and realized that they were out for blood.

"Who did you have in mind as a team?" Tsunade asked, as serious as the two in her room.

"Whoever is a high ranking ninja that is ready, there can be no delays Hokage-sama." Naruto said with a level tone.

Tsunade looked at him, "Alright, I'll see who we have to work with." Tsunade said as she started looking through papers. Tsunade stopped however when she heard a growl from before her, looking up she meet the gaze of Naruto.

"We need ninja now! No looking, anyone in this building would probably do." Naruto said in a dark tone.

Just as Naruto spoke the door to Tsunade's office opened up, to reveal one Hatake Kakashi as he entered the office slowly, with Sakura following nearby.

"Tsunade-sensei, Kakashi-sensei was here to report for his mission that you were going to send him on, sorry for interrupting." Sakura said, looking between Naruto and Jiraiya.

"Actually Sakura, you aren't interrupting anything," Tsunade said in serious tone. "We need you and Kakashi right now, Jiraiya and Naruto know that Sabuku no Gaara is being attacked by the Akatsuki, and we need a couple ninja to go with them." Tsunade finished.

Kakashi went from non-interested to total business upon hearing the situation that the red-headed Kazekage was in. "I accept Hokage-sama, and I came prepared to leave on a mission."

Sakura looked at Kakashi, then back to Tsunade. "Yeah, I'm ready to go Tsunade-sensei."

With that Tsunade nodded, and looked back at Naruto. "Is that enough, or do you need anymore?"

"This should be good, but they will have about 4 to 5 minutes time before they leave." Naruto replied, still watching the slug sannin.

"Alright, why do we need 4 to 5 minutes before they leave, shouldn't you be leaving right now?" Tsunade asked, not really understanding the blonde's logic.

Naruto then took a few steps back, so that he was in the center of the room, and replied. "They leave in 4 minutes, because I need to make sure that the path is clear, and they don't die upon entering a battle field."

Tsunade looked at the blond, realizing what he was saying, "You don't think you can make it to Suna in that little amount of time, and secure an area." The slug sannin said.

"Kakashi, Sakura get over here." Jiraiya said, watching as the two of them crossed the room, so that everyone was by Tsunade's desk, except Naruto, who was standing in the middle of the room.

"And Tsunade," Jiraiya said, glancing over at the blond woman, who in turn looked straight back at him. "He can make it in that time."

With that said, Naruto closed his eyes, and brought up his hands in the ram seal, gathering chakra and concentrating. All eyes watched as Naruto started gathering more chakra, before Kakashi's, Sakura's, and Tsunade's eyes widened. As Naruto gathered enough chakra for the technique, he looked up at the group of people with an expressionless face and determined eyes, before he disappeared in bright yellow flash.

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Sabuku no Kankuro watched with wide eyed horror as the slouched cloaked figure destroyed his puppet, and his obvious partner was about to leave with Gaara's unconscious body. It had been the first time his puppet had ever received that amount of damage, but that barely dissuaded Kankuro as his brother's life was on the line. Grabbing a kunai out of his holster, Kankuro charged the slouched Akatsuki member.

Though the man had dismembered his puppet with that vicious tail that he controlled, Kankuro figured he could get within striking range if he was fast enough, and careful.

As if on que the tail that was hidden behind the Akatsuki member's cloak shot out towards the charging nin. Ducking under it, Kankuro continued rushing forward; nimbly Kankuro jumped over the tail, avoiding the entire tail swinging trying to cut Kankuro with the poisoned blades.

Now the sand shinobi was close enough and jumped to attack the Akatsuki member, only to have his eyes widen as the mouth of the slouched Akatsuki member opened, and darts shot out towards his air born body, undoubtedly poisoned.

Kankuro didn't even have enough time to close his eyes before a bright yellow light flash blinded him momentarily. Still in the air but unable to see, Kankuro heard a large explosion, and felt his body suddenly being pushed, and then he felt the hard impact of earth. Opening his eyes and letting them readjust, Kankuro was glad that none of the darts make contact with his body. Being able to see again after a few seconds, the sand shinobi looked at the person now standing beside him, and felt a wave of relief.

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Sasori watched within his puppet as his attack was thwarted by a bright yellow flash. A moment after that Sasori wiped his head around to watch Deidara's bird explode. It was about to take off, but a kunai with an exploding note dug into the side of the body of the bird detonating it, with Deidara standing on the thing, while their target remained wrapped in it's tail.

Turning back to look at the sand shinobi that had been attacking him, Sasori almost choked on his breathe. The Kyuubi jinchuuriki was standing before them; though the organization hadn't heard anything about the brat for the past 4 years they knew he was still out there. Sasori studied the face of the blond and realized something however, when the brat had been younger he seemed to have no talent as being a ninja. Looking at the blond before him seemed to contradict what the file said about the blond.

Deidara stood slowly, his bird having been destroyed by this new arrival, and looked at the said new arrival. Many of the same thoughts that Sasori had were going through Deidara's mind. Quickly creating another bird, Deidara had already hoped atop of it, all the while keeping his stare at the blond jinchuuriki. As Deidara was about to secure Gaara once again in the back of the bird's feathers, a cold voice interrupted him causing him to stop momentarily, and cut through the silence that had fallen over everyone.

"If you let Sabuku no Gaara go now, then I will let you go, there would be no need for bloodshed today." Naruto spoke dangerously, his eyes staring down each of the Akatsuki members. "But if you do not let Gaara go, then you will try to run. I will catch up to you. And I will kill you."

Sasori looked at the blond before him and realized that he was a serious threat, both he and Deidara needed to leave immediately. Deciding that their priority was to get the jinchuuriki they had in custody to safety, Sasori acted.

Turning towards his partner, Sasori yelled, "Leave with the jinchuuriki, find a place and begin the extraction." After the puppet user of Akatsuki told his partner what to do, he looked back at the blond. Deidara nodded before he took off from the ground flying at a high speed.

Naruto's entire body tensed up as the blonde Akatsuki took off from the ground, with a growl the blond said aloud, "Wrong choice." With that the blond was about to launch himself at the hunched over Akatsuki, only to find that the cloaked figure had a tail flying towards him and Kankuro who was still on the ground. As the attack closed in Naruto realized that if he were to dodge, Kankuro would be hit. Deciding that wasn't a good thing Naruto set his plan in action.

Instead of dodging the tail, like Sasori thought he would, the blond grabbed onto it, as it wrapped itself around his arm, digging into his skin and cleaving his flesh. Sasori watched as a flash of pain showed on the blonde's face, probably from the amount of poison in his system.

Then before Sasori could act, he was being launched towards Naruto. He had used his tail and pulled on it hard, sending the red haired puppet user rocketing towards the blonds. Just within feet of the two, Sasori prepared himself for a counter attack.

That was before both Naruto and Kankuro launched themselves at him. Activating all his hidden knives with poisoned tips, Sasori made pin cushions out of the two as they tackled him to the ground. He was almost disappointed by the lack of a challenge the two of them provided, both dead due to his poison. As Sasori tried to untangle himself from their limbs, a deadly explosion rocked the street Sasori had just been in as two kibaku-kage bunshin's detonated.

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Kankuro ran next to the shadow clone of Naruto who had just arrived. Though Kankuro would never admit it, he was ecstatic that the blond ninja was present; if he was here then that meant Gaara might turn out to be all right in the end of things. The blond shinobi had the knack of making everything work out all right.

Kankuro looked at the clone as it spoke, gaining his attention. "Kankuro, is your sister here in the village?"

"Yeah she is, but I don't think that she knows what is happening." Kankuro said, knowing that she probably didn't see Gaara's enormous sand arms attacking a clay bird.

The clone nodded before it responded, "Alright, you need to get her, and organize roughly 10 to 20 high ranking trustworthy shinobi." Naruto clone instructed the Suna nin. "Once you have that many shinobi, you need to proceed to where were just at with extreme caution."

At the given instructions Kankuro nodded before the clone disappeared, leaving Kankuro to sprint to the center of the village. As the Suna nin ran to retrieve the requested amount of ninja, Kankuro was distracted by a rather large explosion, looking over his shoulder Kankuro saw a large cloud of black dust in the sky. Wishing Uzumaki Naruto luck, Kankuro continued running, ignoring the chakra that was being released behind him.

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Deidara was moving quickly atop his clay bird; he just took off and was trying to get as high as he could so no one could attack him. As the blond Akatsuki reached a comfortable height he turned around and looked down at the village. Deidara looked for a second only to particularly notice a yellow flash down on the ground before he sensed an attack from behind.

With no time to prepare for such a quick attack, all Deidara could do was tense his back as a fist hammered into him, pushing the cloaked man off balance and forward, almost off of the bird he was standing on. Deidara applied chakra to his feet, slowing him down enough and saving him from falling off the flying creature. Turning around after the blow Deidara watched as Naruto was hacking away with two kunai at the tail feathers of his clay bird that held Gaara.

With a small smile Deidara allowed himself to fall off the side of his bird, and let himself fall for a couple hundred feet, before he did a short series of one handed seals. Applying the required chakra, Deidara watched in satisfaction as the bird detonated with a rather large explosion.

Turning his head towards the Earth Deidara grabbed some good clay with his only good arm, and created another bird to fly on.

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Kankuro stood in the small street and watched as the slouched Akatsuki figure stood very slowly. Eyes widened slightly at this sight; that explosion was a rather brutal one, and to be able to stand after a direct after that was no small feat. Kankuro was distracted from Sasori though as a yellow flash appeared beside the Suna nin.

Kankuro looked at Naruto and gasped; in all the while that the two had seen each other since he started training, Kankuro had never seen the blond look this bad. Naruto carried an unconscious Gaara bridal style, though Gaara looked a little rough, a bloody scrape was adorned on his left cheek, while it looked like he had some burns on his body also. Most of the red-haired Kazekage's sand armor was gone, and his clothes were smoking, and tattered with debris.

Looking at Naruto Kankuro realized that the blond must have tried sheltering Gaara from the blast as best as he could. A large cut was bleeding freely on the side of his neck, while his face was brown with dirt and debris. A cut seemed to be on his head as he had blood mixed with his blond locks. He was entire left side of his body had shrapnel in it, in the form of clay, poking out from various parts of his body, his clothes were torn and burnt on the side of the shrapnel.

Naruto winced as he slowly put Gaara on the ground. Kankuro looked at the blond as the pieces of clay started falling out of his body, already being healed up by the Kyuubi's chakra, though the blood and holes in the clothing remained.

"Kankuro you need to keep an eye on Gaara, they cannot get their hands on him again." Naruto said as he caught his breathe; that stupid blond Akatsuki knew he was going to shelter Gaara using his own body. The entire detonation of the bird took Naruto by surprise though; he had barely enough time to use the hirashin no jutsu before the bird fully detonated, if it had it probably would have killed himself and Gaara.

Kankuro looked at Naruto again, "They will be coming back, and you aren't going to be able to hold them both off by yourself, and I don't think I would be able to keep Gaara safe." Kankuro said in a frustrated voice.

"That is why we have backup coming." Naruto said, as he reached into a hidden kunai holster on his leg, and withdrew a three-pronged kunai with paper with seals wrapped around the handle of the kunai. Spinning the kunai on his finger once Naruto threw it into the ground 5 feet away from where he, Kankuro, and Gaara were located.

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"So Sakura, when we arrive there, you need to give medical attention to anyone who needs it. Kakashi, you are to cover Sakura while she does this, and if you deem that she has adequate cover than you may join Jiraiya and Naruto in the fight. Jiraiya, you have to fight one of the two Akatsuki." Tsunade ran over the plan that they had come up with. It was solid and basic.

"At all costs, try to kill these two men. The less Akatsuki we have, the better." Tsunade said, receiving a round of nods from the people in the room. After she said this, Jiraiya's eyes suddenly widened.

"Alright, it's time to go." As Jiraiya said this, Sakura and Kakashi moved to the center of the room. "You two need to take one of my arms each, and don't do any sudden movements, because with this distance something bad could happen." Jiraiya instructed as the two shinobi listened to the orders he gave them.

Jiraiya closed his eyes, and began gathering the chakra, taking less time than it had for Naruto. As Jiraiya opened his eyes he gave his two fellow shinobi a warning, "This is going to feel weird, so be prepared."

With that, Jiraiya released the chakra, and the three of them disappeared from Tsunade's office in a bright flash of blinding white light.

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Sasori stood slowly, checking his puppet. The tail was destroyed, the face cracked and broken; its leg joints were stripped and becoming loose. In an overall summary, one of Sasori's favorite puppets was destroyed. Slowly taking off the puppet's parts, Sasori eventually stood up, exposing his face to world. It had been a while since someone made him fight with his 'body', this could be interesting.

It had been a while since someone had pulled a number on him like that one; it was ingenious in and of itself. Though the red haired puppet user was furious that his puppet was destroyed, he could only blame himself as much as the blond. He had fallen for such a blatant trap.

Turning to look at where the blond was now located, Sasori noted that there now seemed to be more shinobi surrounding the blond. How unfortunate, he wanted to give Uzumaki Naruto his personal thanks. Looking over his shoulder, Sasori noted that Deidara was sticking around too, probably wanting to finish his mission. Knowing that Deidara wasn't leaving Sasori began walking towards the group of ninja who seemed to be watching him with interest.

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"Naruto, who are you going to fight?" Jiraiya asked without taking his eyes off of the red haired man who was making his way towards them as they spoke. Using the hirashin with that many people was a little bit difficult, but thanks to Naruto, the toad sannin had eventually learned it to use it successfully. Not nearly as successfully as either of his two students seemed to be able to use it.

Naruto remained quiet for a second thinking about the best course of action to take. "I should the one flying on the bird thing, he seems to fight at a distance, and unfortunately I'm the only one here who can reach him easily enough." The blond summed up, keeping an eye on the trek of the red-headed man that was making his way to their position.

"The red head seemed to be using a puppet as his body, but I think I destroyed that thing for good, but he uses a lot of quick and lethal attacks. Poison darts, chains laced with deadly venoms, and hidden poisoned tipped blades." Naruto summarized all that he knew about Sasori.

Jiraiya nodded grimly, he would have to be careful with this one; poison experts were exceptionally ruthless when it came to a fight.

"We have one more thing to discuss though." Jiraiya said, loud enough for everyone to hear, causing Sakura and Kakashi to listen as well. "The mission is to protect Gaara, and don't die. Failing this mission is unacceptable, do whatever you deem necessary to complete this mission." The white haired man finished, causing both Sakura and Kakashi to mentally agree.

"Here we go." Naruto said before he yet again disappeared in a flash of yellow, while Jiraiya blurred out of sight as he sprinted forward to meet the Akatsuki that was marching towards them.

Jiraiya was approaching fast, the marching Akatsuki member recognized this as he stopped his march, and prepared for the toad sannin's assault. As Jiraiya entered striking distance he began a series feints. Feint left, right, right, then left again before with a burst of speed attacked the Akatsuki member throwing a chakra empowered punch.

At the last second Sasori threw up his arms, blocking the attack; Jiraiya only had a moment before he had to escape as knives flew out the missing nin's cloak. The knives flying all around the white haired man, though none made contact with his body.

Jiraiya looked at the puppet, user; this would be a dangerous fight, one mistake on his part and he could be dead within seconds due to the poison. Reaching into his kunai holster, Jiraiya grabbed two kunai, hiding one behind the other.

Sasori looked across the battle field at the sannin, and waited for the white haired man to make a move. Jiraiya complied instantly throwing one of the kunai in his hands at the feet of the Akatsuki member, while he discretely threw the second kunai into the ground behind him.

Sasori noted that the kunai flew into the ground before him, it didn't have an exploding note on it, so he didn't take his eyes off the toad sannin as he charged towards the puppet user.

Sasori ducked under a harsh roundhouse kick, and had to block with his arms as a follow up punch was aimed at his face from the same direction of the kick. The impact of the punch sent the puppet user skidding back; Sasori looked past his arm and at the toad sannin who was charging him again, that last attack was enforced with chakra. The red headed Akatsuki made a mental note of dodging the white haired man's attacks. They were coming close to breaking parts of the joints in his puppet's body.

As Sasori prepared for the incoming attack again, he planned on exposing himself for the sake of successfully hitting the toad sannin with one of his poisoned darts. As Jiraiya was within striking distance again, Sasori jumped back to avoid a kick to his ribs, and moved to the side avoiding a punch that followed the kick again. This time though, Sasori overextended himself slightly, exposing himself to Jiraiya.

The toad sannin took the bait and moved in closer and brought his knee up to attack, that was before he noted that a dart had been shot at him from somewhere within the Akatsuki member's cloak. The dart was heading for a path straight to Jiraiya's neck, and Sasori expected the man to attempt to dodge.

Sasori's eyes widened however when the man continued forward, taking the dart to the neck, and successfully landed another harsh blow Sasori's doll's midsection. Grunting in pain, Sasori watched as the Jiraiya before him disappeared in a puff of smoke, indicating that it was a kage-bunshin.

Sasori barely had time to register the fact that there was a rather large release of chakra directly behind him, before a very intense heat caused the red head to think rather quickly.

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Jiraiya just finished up using the katon gokagyu no jutsu; the shadow clone had been a successful distraction, and bought the white haired man enough time to hit the missing nin in the back with the technique. Jiraiya was still tense though, this man was an S-class missing nin for a reason.

As if on que, a figure started standing slowly, getting Jiraiya's attention. As he watched his enemy stand, Jiraiya's eyes narrowed; his suspicions had been correct. Sasori was standing slowly, but most of his cloak had been burned off the top half of his 'body', revealing all the joints, and lines that the wooden puppet body he had. A part of the Akatsuki member's shoulder had the look of charred wood.

Sasori looked back at the toad sannin; now it was time to use his puppet. Releasing a winding cable from his stomach, and two windmill blades attached to his back Sasori prepared for the next attack. Jiraiya didn't keep the red head waiting long before he bolted forward.

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Deidara looked down at the two people guarding his target, one was performing medical jutsu on the jinchuuriki, and the other was standing over her. That would prove to be a pain if he ever got down there. The blond Akatsuki member was having trouble fighting for his life as a ghost kept attacking him. Deidara knew the Yondaime was dead, but yet here was a ghost of the man fighting him; Deidara no longer viewed Naruto as a jinchuuriki, he thought of him more as an angel of death.

Deidara saw another flash of yellow before he was assaulted by blow after blow, the Konoha nin moving to fast for Deidara to follow. After a succession of heavy blows Deidara was launched off his clay bird for a third time, out of instinct Deidara detonated that bird as well.

The blond Akatsuki member's anger grew as he saw a flash of yellow before the actual explosion took place. He had been trying this tactic ever since they had started fighting with Gaara in his custody; the blond should have been unconscious or at least incapacitated after being hit by that first blast.

Looking at the ever approaching ground, Deidara got an idea. Shooting his hand into his clay pouch Deidara then made a rather small sized bug, and then he also made another bird for him to sail on. Inflating the bird to a proper size the blond Akatsuki tense his body, with the bug hidden; this was going to work. The blond brat kept attacking him from behind, and this time it would be his downfall.

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Naruto watched as the explosion loving Akatsuki created yet another bird, and apparently waited for his next attack. Naruto had been using the Hirashin to appear behind the guy and knock him off those annoying birds, but he kept detonating them after he was off of them and he made another one. Naruto frowned; he was going to have to come up with a counter attack to that soon. Standing on a roof that he had been continuing to return to, Naruto then focused his chakra again and disappeared in another flash of yellow.

Appearing right behind the Akatsuki, Naruto only had a millisecond to realize the mistake he had committed. There in the middle of the blond Akatsuki's back was a small clay bug, and it seemed to have a large triangle angled away from the blond missing nin's back, and more importantly, the triangle was aimed right at him. Naruto didn't even have enough time to fully cover his face with his arms, as the small bug detonated in a harsh explosion, knocking Naruto unconscious and sailing through the air towards the ground, hundreds of feet below.

Deidara grimaced; the bug placed on his back had worked, knocking the annoyance out of the fight. But the explosion had hurt the blond Akatsuki; usually detonating a bomb on you back wasn't an overly advised thing, even if it was only a type of bomb that exploded in one direction. Looking back down at the ground Deidara pushed his clay bird faster and into a dive aimed straight at the two Konoha nin huddled over his target's body.

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Jiraiya grimaced, the puppet user was very talented, but he wasn't enough to beat the toad sage. Jiraiya's eyes left his opponent, and darted to the side quickly, where the two odd kunai still lay embedded into the ground.

'If I could get him over there, I will have this fight in the bag.' Jiraiya thought to himself; the puppet user had no sentient body, but he still had a heart. That was the circular container in the chest of the man's body, if he could destroy that, then he would kill the man. Jiraiya frowned, how am I going to maneuver him over there between the kunai?

Jiraiya was left to his thoughts as the two shinobi stood facing each other in a face off; each had attacked one another and each time no lasting damage was done. So far Sasori looked worse for wear, but Jiraiya's reactions were getting slower from constantly having to move at a moments notice due to all the knives darts and bombs his puppet opponent had in his body.

Suddenly Jiraiya leaped into action again, running in a wide arch, on the same side as the kunai, Sasori turned his body, keeping a steady eye on the white haired man. As Jiraiya finally had the kunai to his back as he charged the puppet user, he set his plan into motion.

Sasori watched as Jiraiya sprinted at him, he shoot forth his tail in hopes to slow his attack. Jiraiya nimbly dodged the attack and continued forward. As Jiraiya entered the range to attack the red head, he jumped into the air, aiming a kick at the man's head. Sasori ducked under the attack, not wasting the energy to block the attack. As the white haired man sailed overhead Sasori tried attacking with his blades attached to his back, only to have the sannin avoid them.

As Jiraiya was descending to the ground he threw a kunai at the puppeteer's chest; Sasori's eyes widened as he saw the exploding note wrapped around the handle of the kunai. Quickly jumping back and bringing his arms up to protect himself, Sasori was blown even further back as the blast pushed him right where Jiraiya wanted him to be.

Bringing his arms down, Sasori looked at the cloud of smoke where the white haired sannin was gathering a dangerous amount of chakra. The red head Akatsuki kept his eyes on the place where he knew Jiraiya was located; Sasori's body tensed as a white flash shone around him, drawing his attention to his side where he saw movement.

Turning quickly, Sasori saw Jiraiya launching himself into the air, moving quickly with a ball of raging chakra in his hand, aimed at the red head's chest. Reacting quickly Sasori shot his tail forward, as quickly as he could; the attack sailed through air, and deeply pierced Jiraiya's chest, causing his face to falter.

Sasori let a brief moment of relief wash over him as he watched the poison take its toll on the white haired man as he fell to the ground. Then Sasori felt his body being ripped to shreds from behind, as he watched the Jiraiya before him puff into smoke. He only had a moment to realize he had been fooled again, before Jiraiya's rasengan tore through the container holding his heart.

Sasori's body hung in the air after his entire torso had been ripped out, sending pieces of wood flying everywhere. Jiraiya then forcefully removed his hand from the empty chest cavity, letting the puppet fall to the ground. The fight had been somewhat of a disappointment, but he had different matters to worry about. Turning to look at the image of a diving clay bird, Jiraiya created another kage-bunshin, and left to help the other Konoha nin; leaving behind the bunshin with the task to burn the remains of the body of Sasori.

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Kakashi watched as the giant clay bird made its way toward their current position. Looking behind the bird Kakashi saw that Naruto was still in a free fall down to Earth, quickly looking back at the fast approaching enemy, Kakashi thought it would be wise to alert Sakura.

"Sakura," Kakashi said, interrupting the pink haired girl. Sakura's hands stopped glowing green, as they worked over Gaara's body and turned to look at Kakashi. "We might have company."

Sakura followed her sensei's line of sight and saw the incoming bird with the Akatsuki member atop of it. Standing up, and leaving Gaara on the ground for a moment, Sakura stood beside Kakashi.

"Kakashi-sensei, what should we do?" The pink haired girl asked as she also watched the incoming clay bird.

Kakashi was quiet for a moment before he answered. "If I miss my attack right now, I want you to get Gaara to safety, he holds the bijuu that these Akatsuki are after. If they get them, it's not gonna be good. So you run for cover with Gaara, understand Sakura?"

"Hai, sensei." Was Sakura's short reply, eyes focused on the bird, sky bombing them.

Kakashi moved his hand up to his forehead protector, and revealed his sharingan eye, the enemy was coming at them in a straight line, he had one chance to do this. Activating the mangekyou sharingan that the cycloptic nin had obtained years ago.

Whispering under his breath Kakashi activated the sharingan in his eye, "Kamui." Causing Sakura to turn her head and stare wide eyed at her sensei's new technique.

The silver haired man didn't notice though, as he was concentrating on the task at hand. Supplying his eye the chakra needed he focused on the figure riding on top of the clay bird. Feeling the technique beginning to work, Kakashi furrowed his brow and pumped more chakra to his eye, and concentrated even more.

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The wind almost made Deidara's eyes water as he continued his dive towards the two Konoha ninja guarding his target. Narrowing his eyes Deidara started planning how he was going to fend off the two shinobi guarding his target. It would have to be quick and deadly, which would give the blond Akatsuki enough time to extract Gaara.

Deidara was interrupted from his attack plan when something felt wrong. The air around him started to feel empty, or heavy, or one of the two. That was when Deidara felt the full force of the attack; something was sucking himself, into himself. Deidara looked back to the ground and noted that one of the Konoha ninja resembled a ninja in bingo books around all the countries.

Deidara remembered the page that had the silver haired man's picture in it; Sharingan no Kakashi, very high A rank, said to know over 1,000 jutsus. The sharingan that Kakashi had was probably responsible for the odd technique happening to Deidara. Growling, Deidara pushed through the unease in his stomach and forced his bird to try and take a sharp turn, attempting to avoid the technique before it was too late.

Just Deidara thought that he had cleared the attack; he felt an extreme pain in the arm he had left. Looking at his arm, the blond watched as it seemed implode and disappear, but not without causing Deidara a great amount of pain. Hissing Deidara continued flying the clay bird, turning it away from the Konoha ninja who were guarding his target, not wanting to deal with the shinobi on the ground.

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Naruto jerked awake, he was in quite a bit of pain. He could tell that his right shoulder joint was destroyed, a couple of ribs had been fractured, and he probably had some internal damage. Eyes focusing the blond noted that he was still in the air, and falling towards the ground, which was getting frighteningly closer each passing second.

The blond looked around and saw his enemy soaring on top of the clay bird; that last attack the blond Akatsuki had done to Naruto was brilliant. But Naruto would not admit that yet, at least not until he could feel his right hand.

Looking back at the man on the clay bird, Naruto began focusing chakra, despite it taking a moment as it moved sluggishly. Focusing on the man, Naruto felt the rasengan in his left hand form flawlessly; now armed with the killing blow Naruto released even more of his chakra, and disappeared using the hirashin no jutsu yet again, stopping his continuous fall to the earth and impending doom.

With another yellow flash signaling his arrival, Naruto stared at the back of the Akatsuki member. Deidara didn't even have time to turn his head around before Naruto's rasengan powered hand tore through the flesh of Deidara's back and forced its way through, creating an empty cavity in Deidara's chest where the man's heart and lungs would have been. The blond Akatsuki member's body fell to the back of bird, face hitting the clay bird he had been riding, obviously dead.

Naruto looked upon what his jutsu had done with cold hard eyes, and an expressionless face. Reaching into his kunai holster the blond withdrew an exploding note, and threw it onto the back of the bird as it continued flying, before disappearing in another bright yellow flash signifying use of the hirashin.

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Kakashi covered his sharingan eye, feeling more than a little drained. Using the mangekyou wore him out like nothing else. Looking over to Sakura again the cycloptic nin noticed that she had revived Gaara, despite the fact that the boy in question looked a little worse for wear, he would probably be just fine in a matter of minutes.

Hearing someone approach, Kakashi wiped his head around to note that Jiraiya was making his way back over to their group. Kakashi relaxed at this, if Jiraiya was coming back that meant the silver haired man wouldn't have to worry fighting in such a tired state.

Everyone's attention was drawn to the sky at that moment though, as another great explosion sounded through Suna. Looking up at the sky, Kakashi noted that unlike the past explosions where the Akatsuki member had free fallen until he made another bird, there was no one falling, only debris fell to the ground from the bird's explosion.

Kakashi's attention was drawn away from the sky as a yellow flash behind him made the silver haired man turn around to see his student. Naruto had a scowl on his face as he slowly sat down, using a building's wall as help. The blond didn't look to good, his right arm hung still at his side, while his left arm was wrapped around his chest, supporting his right rib cage. The blonde's face had scratches all over it, along with dirt or clay. Burn marks could be seen on his neck, and hand of his useless arm.

As Kakashi was taking in the sight of his student Sakura had finished doing all she could for Gaara before she turned around and noted the condition the blond was in.

"Naruto you need to stay still," Sakura commanded as she was at his side in an instant, hands glowing green. "Let's see what type of damage was done to your body."

Naruto's face contorted with pain as his body finally made it to the ground, resting his body on the building's wall behind him. "Nah, Sakura, I'll be alright in a couple of minutes." Naruto said as he closed his eyes and rested his head on the wall also. His reply didn't seem to appease Sakura very well.

"Like hell you will, you look like you can't breathe without any pain." Sakura said, waiting for the blond to relent.

"Sakura, remember I have an 'advantage' when it comes to healing quickly." Naruto said 'advantage' with obvious disgust. Everyone there knew that the blond was referring to the Kyuubi's healing ability.

Naruto opened his eyes and looked across from him, looking into two green eyes with dark rings circling them. Naruto smirked, "Geese Gaara, you had to make it as close to a disaster as you could." Naruto said, laughing a little with no pain on his face.

Kakashi and Sakura turned to look at Gaara, who also had a smirk on his face. "I didn't want to give you another chance to save me so easily. I thought I would attempt to even up the score between us. I however did not presume that you would be so injured after the fight." Gaara said.

Naruto's smirk fell off his face, "The bastard cheated, he put an explosive on his own back in order to beat me." Naruto defended himself. This piece of news shocked Sakura and Kakashi though, as neither of them saw the attack that had injured their blond team-mate.

As Naruto was talking Sakura noted that the cuts on the blonde's face were healing, and the burns on his body were doing the same thing. This relieved Sakura of some of her concerns about her blond team mate's health.

Suddenly everyone's attention was drawn to the new arrival of the toad sannin. "You should have thought of that situation, he might have tried using an exploding clone on you also." Jiraiya said as he looked down at Naruto with a small smile on his lips.

"Yeah I thought about that last part. I even made sure to check and make sure it was him every time I attacked and not a clone." Naruto defended himself.

Jiraiya nodded, "I'm surprised you didn't try using your own kibaku-kage bunshin with the hirashin to catch him off guard." The white haired man thought as he stood by Kakashi's side. Kakashi's suspicions were correct as he heard the toad sannin say the name of Naruto's technique that was like the Yondaime's. Kakashi was very curious as well to know how his student had learned the hirashin, but decided to keep his questions to himself until later

Naruto shook his head and frowned. "Using the hirashin uses a good bit of chakra in the first place. But to make an exploding clone with enough chakra to use the hirashin would have been such a pain. I thought about it though." Naruto said in his defense.

Jiraiya nodded at that, and noted that the scratches on his student's face were disappearing. "Almost fully healed yet?" Jiraiya asked plainly.

Naruto suddenly stood up, and started doing stretches that would have probably made the blond pass out in pain minutes before. "Yeah, I'm fully healed again." The blond then proceeded to swing his right arm around and over his head, stretching his shoulder. "My shoulder is a little stiff though, probably all the reattached muscle." Naruto added as an after thought.

Sakura was standing up and was scanning Naruto's shoulder with her glowing hands. Surprise was etched onto her face, the entire joint had been healed, nothing was wrong with it. Naruto complied and stayed still as Sakura moved her diagnosis down towards his right ribcage; again she was shocked to find everything perfectly fine in such a short amount of time.

Standing back up Sakura looked at her team mate, "You're perfectly fine, but I would advise for you to be a little more careful from now on." Was the short berating the pink haired girl gave Naruto.

Looking sheepish enough, Naruto walked through the small group of people around him and stood right in front of Gaara. "You're alright, right? No broken bones or concussions? How about any immediate loss of one-tailed demons?" Naruto asked Gaara with a concerned yet happy look in his eyes.

"I do have a bit of a headache, and I think I pulled a muscle in my neck." Gaara replied, with an expressionless face.

Naruto however rolled his eyes, "Ah that's good to hear, glad that you're in perfect health." Naruto said as he patted his friend on the shoulder before walking a little ways away and stretched his arm and shoulder joint some more.

Jiraiya looked at the red head, "Hey ya brat, how's that new seal holding up?" The toad sannin asked as he leaned against the wall Naruto had been a few minutes earlier.

Sakura felt uneasy as she watched Gaara's eye twitch before he answered. "It is holding up fine, it has also given me the chance to experience sleep, which is very addicting."

Sakura looked at the red head she remembered as a killer during the chunin exams, and couldn't imagine the teen being addicted to sleeping. Then Sakura imagined Gaara sleeping with an open mouth allowing a stream of saliva to find its way onto his pillow. That mental image made Sakura laugh little.

As everyone gathered in the street, they began walking back towards the center of the village, as the battle that they had participated in took place along the outskirts of town. Everyone walked close, and only Jiraiya, Naruto, and surprisingly Gaara talked. They were poking fun at each other, calling each other names, and having a good time. Kakashi noticed that Gaara was obviously stable now, and even smiled when Jiraiya insulted Naruto; only to have a scowl on his face once he got insulted also.

As they continued walking Kakashi needed to know the answer to his question. Finally Kakashi had enough of wonder how they were able to do it, and asked, "How are you two able to do the Hirashin no jutsu?"

The question was directed to Naruto and Jiraiya, and both looked at Kakashi, dropping their conversation with Gaara. "It would probably be better if we discussed that issue in Tsunade's office." Jiraiya said. Kakashi frowned at that; the silver haired man wanted to know. At least they were willing to explain how they were able to do it.

The group continued to walk towards the center of the village in silence; Kakashi was left to ponder the events that happened today until he saw Naruto Jiraiya and Gaara all visibly tense up. Kakashi narrowed his eyes; whatever made those three tense up was probably something bad.

"…Do you smell that?" Naruto broke the silence asking what seemed to be an odd question.

"…Yeah, it is not a particularly common scent within Suna." Gaara answered, leaving Sakura and Kakashi to raise an eyebrow at the conversation.

"…I like the smell of flowers." Jiraiya said, before the three of them jumped into action, leaving Kakashi and Sakura in a defensive stance at the sudden movement. Gaara sent a wave of sand down a particular street, Naruto disappeared in a yellow flash, while Jiraiya flew through a set of hand seals.

Finishing the hand seals for the jutsu, Jiraiya slammed his hand into the ground, "Anda-guraundo kangoku no jutsu." (Underground prison technique) Calling out the name of the technique Jiraiya then pointed all his chakra at the very well hidden chakra source underground, spying on them.

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Zetsu wasn't a person to be surprised very easily. However as soon as the plant-man knew that his position was jeopardized he had tried to get away, only to find that he couldn't move, as the sand around him had solidified and created a chakra imprisonment. Zetsu handled this situation in two very different ways, his optimistic side thought: 'Oh this could be a chance to introduce myself to these people.' While his darker side thought: 'This could turn out very badly.'

As if on que, the plant-man's thoughts were proven correct as he a wave of sand underneath him launched him into the air; the imprisonment jutsu ending leaving Zetsu exposed to his attackers. Zetsu didn't pay attention to the red head and white haired men in front of him; he was more concerned with the flash of yellow that came from behind him.

Naruto appeared behind the plant thing, and grabbed both of his arms at the wrists. Moving to fast for Zetsu to retaliate Naruto then kicked the plant-man square in the back while pulling up on his arms. Naruto's goal was accomplished as he felt a series of cracks and pops through the plant-man's arms. Pushing off of Zetsu's back, the blond sailed higher, while the Akatsuki member was sent rocketing to the Earth. Naruto then proceeded to make a kibaku-kage bunshin, creating it right behind the falling Akatsuki member.

Zetsu could only close the fly trap around his head as his last line of defense as the clone exploded, sending the plant-man rocketing even harder into the Earth, ricocheting several times on the hard sand before finally coming to a stop.

Naruto then landed beside Jiraiya and Gaara as each of them watched as the Akatsuki member slowly melded into the ground. Kakashi and Sakura ran up to the three, also watching the place where the Akatsuki member had disappeared.

None of them moved as they each searched for the enemy with their senses. After a couple of minutes none of them could sense the plant-man, and doubted that he would return.

"…Um, sensei?" Naruto broke the silence, causing the entire group to look at him. "What exactly was that guy?" Naruto asked, referring to the fly trap looking thing that covered most of his body.

Everyone in the group turned their attention to the white haired man, expecting an answer. "Well…it would appear that he was a…um…Yeah I have no idea what exactly that guy was." Jiraiya finally admitted, causing everyone to sweat drop, except Naruto.

"Alright, well we better get Gaara back to his siblings and village before Temari throws a fit." Naruto said, causing Gaara, himself, and Jiraiya to shiver.

"Do you think she will?" Gaara asked Naruto, a hint of fear in his eyes.

Jiraiya then answered for Naruto, with a question of his own. "Did you get hurt?"

Gaara was silent as he looked forward contemplating the question, "A little, the explosion that knocked me out gave me an impressive headache." The red head answered.

Naruto had tears in his eyes, and his shoulder's slumped, "We are sooooo gonna die, because of Gaara's sister." At this, both Jiraiya and Gaara had a look of horror on their faces. For Jiraiya it was a wide open mouth, with enormous eyes; for Gaara it was an open mouth with wide eyes that held fear behind them.

Sakura and Kakashi could only stare at the three in front of them. Obviously Temari had a wrath that could rival Tsunade's; Kakashi felt a shiver travel his spine at thought.

"Well, we better get back or else she will become more distressed, adding to her agitation, and that would feed her anger." Gaara said gloomily, as the three men dragged their feet, making their way to their dooms, while Sakura and Kakashi walked behind them.

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AN: This chapter was a little difficult for me to write, so I apologize if it isn't up to standards. This next chapter will be better I promise. I also apologize for the amount of time it took me to post this chapter, it took me longer because I had difficulties writing it.

Anyways, a lot of stuff will be described in detail in the next chapter, I promise. And also the whole meeting that was supposed to take place with Sasuke hasn't happened YET. It will and I have something special planned for that. Also Chyou or whatever her name is lives in this time, thanks to Jiraiya beating Sasori.

Plus Kakashi and Sakura didn't have a big role in this chapter because I had no idea how to get them more involved. I at least got Kakashi's mangekyou in here, but Sakura was impossible to include, because Sasori was fighting Jiraiya, and she would have gotten in his way if she fought with him. But both Sakura and Kakashi will larger parts in fights in the near future, you'll see. Thanks for reading!


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: I do not own Naruto and here is the 5th chapter of The Pillar, hope you enjoy.

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Tsunade looked at the four people standing in front of her desk. The room was silent as everyone waited for the Godaime Hokage to speak again. Tsunade had just finished the debriefing of the recent mission she had sent Kakashi, Sakura, Naruto, and Jiraiya on, and they had informed her of what had transpired.

"So," Tsunade started slowly, "you not only saved Gaara, but you managed to kill two members of Akatsuki, and you think that you killed a third member of the group, but are unsure." Tsunade repeated what they had told her in a nutshell.

"Pretty much." Naruto said as he scratched his chin. "But, I don't know if we killed the third member of Akatsuki."

Jiraiya nodded, adding his own two cents, "I agree, we injured the person greatly if we didn't kill them though."

Tsunade just stared at the two with a blank expression. The information they gave her and the fact that neither one of them looked roughed up bothered Tsunade slightly.

"Alright, now that we have that part of the debriefing done it's time we move on to the next part of the debriefing." The blonde Hokage said as she folded her hands in front of her face. "Now, would either one of you two," Inclining her head towards Naruto and Jiraiya, "mind explaining to us present as to how you both can do the Hiraishin?"

The question caused both men's eyes to widen slightly before they both had a sheepish smile put on their face. But Naruto was the one to answer Tsunade's question.

"Well Jiraiya-sensei is able to do it the same way the Yondaime was able to perform the jutsu." Naruto began.

"With the kunai, correct?" Tsunade asked, after receiving a nod from the blond Kakashi asked a question also.

"But I thought that the Hiraishin no jutsu was unique to the Yondaime." The silver haired jounin asked, truly curious, as was everyone in the room about the subject.

"Well, in a way, it was. It is only unique to those who infuse the sealing on the tri-pronged kunai with their own chakra. That's the easy part about creating the kunai for the technique, the difficult part that would be the actual development of the seal for the technique." Naruto explained to everyone in the room.

"Anyone can perform the Hiraishin; all they have to do is infuse the seal with their chakra. That's how Sensei is able to perform the jutsu." Naruto stopped explaining for a moment as Kakashi asked another question.

"So which of you two know the sealing procedure the technique itself?" The cycloptic nin asked the blond student and sannin.

"Heh, that would be the kid, he knows what he's doing when it comes to sealing. But I'm the one who has the notes on the Hiraishin from the Yondaime, Naruto just pieced together the notes once I began teaching him sealing." Jiraiya answered Kakashi's question.

Tsunade furrowed her brows as she thought about Naruto and Jiraiya were explaining to them. "So anyone is capable of doing the Hiraishin?"

Naruto quickly looked at Jiraiya, who in turn shrugged at the blond before said blond looked back at the Hokage. "Theoretically, yeah." Was the simple response.

"Then what is to stop an enemy village from using the technique against us?" Sakura finally spoke, letting everyone know that she was indeed still in the room.

Jiraiya shook his head before he answered. "That's not possible, no enemy village should ever be able to use the Hiraishin against us."

"What makes you so sure about that?" Tsunade asked, wondering about the certainty in the white-haired sannin's voice.

"Because not once has the actual process for the sealing technique been written, and it won't be. That is a fail safe that the Yondaime had written in his notes. Everything about the Hiraishin and final way to produce the seal on the kunai has never been written down. When the Yondaime died, he took that secret with him. But now Naruto knows the process." Jiraiya spoke again, answering the pink haired nin's question.

At this piece of information Tsunade, Kakashi, and Sakura all nodded, realizing that the information was far safer than what it would have been if it had been written down.

"So now that we know how Jiraiya is able to do the Hiraishin, I want to know how Naruto is able to do it, without the use of the kunai." Kakashi said as he turned his full attention on the blond. Tsunade was also interested in that piece of information, at that moment all members of the room's eyes were on the blond jinchuuriki.

Naruto sighed before he began speaking. "Well, how I'm able to do it was actually a dangerous little experiment." Naruto started before he was interrupted by Jiraiya's laugh.

"Little experiment? You managed to knock yourself out for 4 days, and even after you woke up for like 4 minutes to eat and drink you slept for another 2 days." Jiraiya laughed as he recalled the incident.

"Yeah, but that was after I spent months spending time researching and testing seal after seal to make sure it would work." Naruto defended himself before he continued explaining to the rest of the people in the room. "The Hiraishin works very much like a summoning in a way. Wherever the chakra infused kunai, or a seal is that would be a destination. When Jiraiya or I uses the Hiraishin, we are 'de-summoned' from the place we would be, and then 're-summoned' at the place of the kunai or seal. That is a very simplified version of how the Hiraishin works." Naruto finished before he waited for any questions to surface.

After a few moments of silence, Naruto continued. "How I am able to perform the Hiraishin without any kunai is because I made a very special seal, as Jiraiya began teaching me on seals and their usefulness. Once I got very proficient at using them I started working on the Hiraishin's newer version and I struck gold. Only problem was that it was a dangerous gamble. So I tried it on myself."

"Tried what on yourself?" Kakashi asked, truly curious as to how his student was able to use the Yondaime's technique so fluently.

Naruto smiled before he answered the cycloptic nin. "A seal I made up, which was a variant of the seal on all of the tri-pronged kunai. It worked and I made sure that I had done enough tests and predictions as to make sure no permanent damage was done to me." Naruto paused for a moment before continuing.

"My seal was placed on my head, which was the most convenient place to put given the task the seal was supposed to do. The seal essentially lets me place a chakra marker anywhere I want in the world. But it is a lot easier if I the place I want to go is within my line of sight, or I have been there before. Otherwise I could end up inside a wall or something." Naruto explained.

"The basics of the seal on my head are that it lets me place a chakra marker anywhere in the world of my choosing and when I use the Hiraishin seal, which is also hidden on my body, I am instantly transported to the marker." Naruto finished the explanation.

The room was silent for a few moments before Kakashi spoke up. "Could you place a marker somewhere you've never been? And how taxing is traveling long distances, like let's say, to Suna?"

"Yeah I've done that before, placing a marker somewhere I've never been is difficult and dangerous, because I don't know the landscape and I could end up in a wall or a mountain. But that's why I studied a detailed map of every major shinobi village, so in case we ever needed quick instant access, we could get there. Also I could study a recently acquired map of a place, and could probably find my way around based on the map." Naruto stated before he answered the scarecrow nin's second question.

"As for the chakra drain, it's not that taxing for me because of my monster reserves. But one Hiraishin is probably equivalent to 3 or 4 shadow clones of chakra worth." The blond haired jinchuuriki answered.

Tsunade nodded and shuffled a few papers on her desk, seemingly pleased with the answers she had received. "Thank you for the answers, and you have the rest of the day off, and probably the week." The Godaime informed the four assembled people in her office.

Nodding, Jiraiya and Naruto turned and walked out of the office quietly, with Sakura and Kakashi closely following behind. Silence enveloped the office as the door closed behind the four, leaving the blond woman alone in her office.

Sighing Tsunade turned around in her chair to look out her window at Konoha, in the late morning sunlight the village looked beautiful.

'Sarutobi-sensei, you would be so proud of Naruto if you saw the man he is becoming.' Tsunade thought as she gazed upon the Hokage monument. Turning back around to the empty office Tsunade reached under her desk and grabbed her secret stash of sake, and popped the cork. '11 AM isn't too early to start drinking.' Thought the blonde Hokage as she brought the bottle up to her lips and took a drink.

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The room was dark and hazy, and had a heavy air around it. There was a statue of a pair of hands facing upward, with the fingers pointing towards the sky. Upon each of the fingers stood a cloaked figure, there were three fingers that weren't attended too however.

The silence was interrupted by a strong and commanding voice, "What was the status of the last mission?" The figure that asked the question had orange hair and odd piercings that covered his face. His eyes had circles that got bigger as they went further away from the iris.

"Failure." Spoke a figure that had the lower half of the face covered by a cloth, his skin darker than most.

"Elaborate." Pein said in a low tone.

"The one-tailed Shukaku jinchuuriki was the target. The male was alone and unprepared for the assault, and the attack would have gone according to plan, but the jinchuuriki had…assistance." Kakuzu said, and paused for a moment before he continued.

"A team from Konoha responded immediately to the attack upon the jinchuuriki, almost as if they were expecting it. I do not know the details, but from what Zetsu has told me, both Deidara and Sasori are dead."

After Kakuzu said this the room became silent once more. The silence only lasted a few moments. "Do we know who aided the Shukaku jinchuuriki?" Pein asked.

Kakuzu waited a moment before he answered. "Yes. Uzumaki Naruto and Jiraiya of the Sannin aided the Shukaku jinchuuriki. From what Zetsu told me, the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki has become even more powerful."

At this piece of information, three people shuffled, catching the attention of Kakuzu, the masked man looked over to where Itachi and Kisame stood stiff. Kakuzu's attention was drawn back to Pein as he asked yet another question. "What was the extent of Zetsu's injuries?"

"A lacerated left lung, fractured left scapula, fractured right ulna and radius, and internal bleeding due to a rupture in the liver. Despite the injuries he is making what seems to be a full recovery." Kakuzu answered. The masked man could feel the air almost become thicker in the room.

"From now on, avoid Uzumaki Naruto and Jiraiya of the Sannin on sight until further notice. If we send out a group to hunt Uzumaki down, it will be a party of four. Itachi and Kisame, I and Konan will join you in the hunting of Uzumaki when the time comes." Pein finished receiving a small nod from Itachi and Kisame indicating they understood the precautions. With that note of finality, the meeting was then dismissed, as each of the members upon the finger tips of the statue disappeared.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

"This is stupid sensei, just because a random explosion caught me by surprise does not mean I have to quadruple RTT. The guy had a lucky shot, and besides that, it was hard breathing that high up in the sky." Naruto complained to Jiraiya as they walked through the halls of the Hokage's office. Jiraiya told the blond as soon as they left Tsunade's office that he would quadruple his reaction time training (RTT). Since the comment Naruto hadn't stopped complaining.

"God brat, if I a fraction of a ryo every time you complained I would be able to pay off all of Tsunade's debts." Jiraiya retorted to the complaining the blond was doing. "We are both going to train and you have nothing to say about it."

Kakashi and Sakura watched the two with interest as they talked about training, which caught Sakura's attention. "Are you two going to train right now?" The pink haired kunoichi asked.

Naruto and Jiraiya stopped their conversation, turned and looked at Sakura before looking back at each other and then they each shrugged their shoulders, eventually it was Jiraiya that answered. "Yeah, why do you ask?"

"I was just wondering what type of training you two did, and I was also wondering if Kakashi and I could join you?" This question from Sakura caused both Naruto and Jiraiya to raise an eyebrow, while Kakashi's visible eye widened from shock from being involuntarily volunteered.

Naruto recovered quicker than Jiraiya did, and so he responded, "Yeah, you guys can come along, but it's a work out." The blond warned his friend and sensei, only to receive a look of determination and a look of confusion.

"Alright, if you guys want, follow us, we're going to go train right now." Jiraiya said as he turned back around and continued walking out of the Hokage tower with Naruto following him. Sakura was close behind them, with a very lost looking Kakashi.

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Sakura watched with mild interest as four of Naruto's shadow clones moved to corners of the training field they were in and began writing seals on pieces of paper. The training field was completely flat, about 70 meters long and 40 meters wide and completely open. Save for the middle of the training field, which seemed to have an odd arrange of tree stumps sticking 6 or 7 feet out of the ground. The corner the group was closest to seemed to be where Naruto and Jiraiya slept and lived as their tents, fire pit, and supplies were near the small camp. Sakura then focused back on the people before her.

"Now," Naruto started off, catching both Kakashi and Sakura's attention. "This training session is intense, and tough, but it will help out with your stamina and fighting abilities. You can continue to train with sensei and I after today if you want." As he was talking to the two of them he was stretching his legs by touching his toes.

"They probably won't come back," Jiraiya said as he too was doing stretches to prepare himself for the training. "Not only is it a tough workout, but it's a brutal one." Jiraiya finished. Sakura noted that both Naruto and Jiraiya changed their clothing, as they both wore simple white t-shirts, and navy blue shinobi pants with the standard shinobi sandals. Both of them had their kunai and shuriken holsters also.

"Alright, you guys ready to go?" Naruto asked Kakashi and Sakura. After receiving a nod and a reluctant nod, Naruto and Jiraiya both began taking huge breathes. This made Kakashi raise an eyebrow and Sakura to furrow her brow in confusion.

Both looks of confusion were gone in an instant when neither Kakashi nor Sakura could breathe suddenly. Sakura fell to her knee as she began gasping for the air that no longer seemed to be there. Looking around Sakura noted that Kakashi seemed to be having just as hard of a time as she was breathing. But when Sakura looked at Naruto and Jiraiya she found herself envious of how they looked.

Both Naruto and Jiraiya were standing straight up, and were drawing equally deep and slow breathes as if they were used to the apparent lack of oxygen.

"This is a training exercise." Sakura heard Naruto say, she hated to admit it, but he sounded just like he did any other time he was speaking, unlike her and Kakashi gasping just like they had finished running for days on end.

"It's to help your stamina and conditioning by helping your lungs work with as little oxygen as possible in training. This way your lungs will adapt and begin working like they are supposed to in an environment where oxygen is limited. Then when you are in a battle situation with a regular flow of oxygen, you won't fatigue as easily as your opponent." Jiraiya explained to Sakura and Kakashi as their breathing evened out.

"Well now that the explanations are out of the way, I think we can start the training." Naruto said as he started to run around the perimeter of the camp at a fast pace.

Jiraiya watched as Naruto ran for a bit before he turned his attention back to Kakashi and Sakura. "Running the perimeter is the warm-up, let's get to it." And with that, Jiraiya was also running around the perimeter. Eventually Sakura and Kakashi started running, but at a much slower pace than Naruto or Jiraiya.

After 30 minutes of running, Kakashi and Sakura were both reaching their limit, as they weren't allowed to use chakra, and the lack of oxygen wasn't helping their cause.

"Alright, that'll do for a warm-up." Jiraiya said as both he and Naruto slowed their run down and started walking to the middle of their make-shift training ground.

Kakashi and Sakura looked at each with dread in their eyes at hearing the 30 minutes of suffering was just a warm-up. The pair also made their way to the center of the training field, albeit slower than their training partners.

Once they were all in the center of the training field by the tree stumps, Sakura watched with interest as Naruto reluctantly walked into the center of the stumps. There seemed to a complete square of trees with about four feet of space between each stump. Once Naruto was in the middle of all the stumps, Jiraiya made the hand seal necessary to make the kage-bunshin. A short while after, there stood about 20 of Jiraiya's clones all standing around the stump maze.

Sakura watched in curiosity as the clones began to merge into each of the trees around Naruto. The pink haired kunoichi asked with large gasps from the warm-up, "What…are you…doing now?"

Jiraiya looked over at Sakura, and once seeing her condition smirked before he answered her question. "This is reaction time training." As soon as Jiraiya said this, the clones inside the stumps began throwing punches, kicks, backhands, elbows, and knees at Naruto, who in turn was dodging blocking or countering each attack effectively.

"It is great for counter attacks and defending against taijutsu attacks. You both will be doing this also, but at a little less intensity." Jiraiya said as he started walking away from Naruto and the stumps with the clones, Kakashi and Sakura followed the white haired man.

"Now it's time for you two, to spar me." Jiraiya said as he turned towards the pair after they walked a decent distance from Naruto and the stumps. Kakashi and Sakura shared a concerned look, before they both focused on the toad sannin again.

Jiraiya noticed the small interaction and chuckled. "Don't worry; I won't be too rough on you." With that said, Kakashi and Sakura barely had a moment to defend themselves as Jiraiya launched himself at them.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

The four figures laid strewn out on the grass of a training field, each breathing heavily, but slowly after their training session. Naruto turned his head to the side to see Kakashi's clothing singed, cut, and dirty from the all around beating the everyday training he went through. Glancing on his other side, Naruto noted that Sakura was in a very similar state to Kakashi, and she almost seemed to be asleep.

Naruto's clones had released the oxygen limiting seals only minutes before, and everyone in the training field was grateful for it. "So, do you think you will be coming back for more training sessions?" Naruto asked in true curiosity.

Kakashi was about to explain that never again was he ever going to train when Sakura decided to speak for him. "You bet we are. Both of us could use this kind of training." Sakura said as she was slowly gaining her breathe back.

"Looks like you were wrong; I think they might come back for more training, eh sensei?" Naruto said with a slight smirk as he looked upon the clouds floating above his head.

Jiraiya smiled, and sighed with defeat. "You called it on luck; anyone else would have run away after the first hour of training." The white haired man said with a smile in his voice as he too was gazing upon the clouds.

All four heads jerked slightly as they sensed a messenger approaching their training ground. None of them were disappointed when they heard the footsteps approach them from the messenger. The four people looked up at the figure approaching them.

"I've a message for Uzumaki Naruto." The middle aged man said as he held a small piece of paper in his hand.

"That'd be me." Naruto said as he slowly made his way to his feet, body tired from the workout he just endured. Accepting the paper from the man, the messenger bowed slightly to Naruto before he turned around and used a shun shin to travel back to the Hokage tower quicker. The blond haired teen looked at the spot the man had been occupying before he open the piece of paper and read it silently to himself.

_Naruto,_

_I have a mission for you._

_If you are willing to accept it, meet me in my office at 7 o'clock sharp._

_Tsunade_

Naruto smiled as he read the scribbled drawl of the Hokage, she knew he would accept. Despite having just finished training himself he would be willing to take on a mission. Glancing at the sky the blond haired shinobi knew the time was around 4 o'clock. Giving him enough time to grab a bite to eat, and have some time to himself.

"What'd he want?" Jiraiya asked, not having moved from his position on the ground, still looking upon the stars.

"The Hokage has a mission request for me." Naruto said simply as he crumpled up the paper before he threw it in the general direction of their camps fire pit.

"A message directly from the Hokage? Must be an important mission then." Kakashi said as he too was enjoying being able to relax his body after the taxing exercises.

"You should probably go see her right now; Tsunade isn't the patient type Naruto." Sakura advised her friend from her position on the ground.

"I don't have to meet with her until 7, so I've got some time to burn." Naruto said as he glanced at each of his friends as they lay sprawled on the ground. "Anyone want to grab a bite to eat?"

Naruto smiled as a string of yeses assaulted his ears.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Mitarashi Anko glowered at the path she was currently gimping down. Yes, she, the great and mighty Anko, had a gimp, however temporary it was, it was still there. And she was on a personal mission that wasn't going as she would have expected. Who would have thought that someone with blond hair and looked exactly like the Yondaime Hokage could be such an elusive person to find.

But Anko was determined to find the blond haired shinobi, simply because she was in his debt, and she didn't like being in debt with anyone. The purple haired woman had asked around, and searched all of the blonde's favorite spots to be, but alas, he wasn't at any of them. This fact almost drove her crazy as she was now searching the last of the places Naruto had been said to find solace in. The top of the Hokage monument.

Anko was slowly but surely making her way to the top of the monument, and if the blond wasn't there, then she would make their next meeting a very painful one. Turning last corner of the path, Anko had a clear shot at the person of her mission sitting on the head of the Yondaime, with both arms holding up his position as he stared off into the distance.

The purple haired woman slowly made her way towards the blond, conscious of making noise to let him know she was there. Once she was next to him, she plopped down on the ground next to him, and joined him as he stared out into the distance. There was a comfortable silence while the pair just enjoyed each other's company.

Tilting her head to get a better look at him, Anko broke the silence. "I never really thanked you for saving me. On our mission together." The purple haired kunoichi said bluntly, mentally berating herself for her lack of skill dealing with this type of situation.

Naruto was silent for another moment before he too turned his head and looked her in the eyes and responded. "You shouldn't thank me, if it wasn't for me you would be walking just fine, and you wouldn't have been wounded."

Anko stared the blond in the eyes, before a frown marred her features. "Are you really blaming yourself for me getting hurt?" The kunoichi didn't wait for an answer from the blond shinobi. "If it wasn't for you, I would be 9 feet under; if it wasn't for you I would in some foreign interrogation room, being questioned for being in an unallied country." Anko said allowing some emotion into her voice as she scolded Naruto for his train of thought.

Naruto looked away from her then, "But if I had been faster, or smarter, I would have been able to see what that psycho was going to do, and would have been able to stop you from getting hurt." The blond said in an apologetic tone.

"No," Anko said in a firm voice once again. "You were able to not only carry me back to Konoha for medical attention, but you also shielded me from most of the explosion on the roof. I mean you even took out an entire team of ANBU that wasn't even supposed to exist." Anko said, showing the blond that what went wrong was not his fault.

Anko snorted before she continued; "Now if **I **had been better or faster I wouldn't have to deal with a depressed blond." After that statement from Anko, Naruto couldn't help as a smirk played itself upon his features.

"But don't think that you can take all the action the next time we have a mission together, like you did last time, got it?" Anko said, as she herself smirking.

Naruto was quiet for a second more before he responded. "Only if you can keep up." This caused Anko's smirk to widen even more.

"Oh, I can keep up. I'm usually the one setting the pace." The purple haired kunoichi allowed herself to enjoy the situation, not like most of her encounters with the populace of Konoha and how she had a shield of defiance. The two of them sat atop the Hokage monument for a few seconds in a comfortable silence before Naruto decided to break it.

"How long are you going to have a limp?" The blonde's eyebrows were knitted together with concern as he looked at her slightly swollen leg.

"It should be gone by tomorrow, the only reason why I limp is to relieve some of the pressure from the swollen tissue around the bone." Anko responded. The answer seemed to satisfy the blond as he merely nodded his head in approval.

"But, you do owe me for allowing me to get hurt." Anko said suddenly which caused Naruto to turn and look at her with widened eyes. "So you'll have to think of something to make it up to me." The purple haired kunoichi said as she sat up, and brushed herself off.

She glanced down at the blond to see a look of bewilderment upon his features, she allowed herself to smirk down at him. "I like sake, and dango." With that, Anko left Naruto atop the Hokage monument to think about what she said, which only confused him, until his eyes lit up after she was gone.

Naruto cocked one of his eyebrows and asked a question aloud, almost expecting an answer. "Does that make it a date?"

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Naruto looked over the details of the mission that Tsunade had just offered him. B-rank information gathering mission in Otogakure, slip in undetected and gather information about Orochimaru and the sound forces.

The blond looked up from the papers he had been reading and looked at the Godaime Hokage. "Any limitations upon this mission?"

Tsunade shook her head, "No, you may use any means you deem necessary on this mission. But it is crucial that you remain undetected, and do not allow anyone to identify you or where your from. If Orochimaru found out his village had been infiltrated, and information was taken on him by a Konoha nin, the consequences could be war." The blonde Hokage explained to Naruto.

Naruto only nodded once before he responded. "I understand and accept the mission. I plan on departing tonight after I alert sensei about my absence and gather enough supplies to perform the mission."

"Very well, you are dismissed." Tsunade said, and watched as the blond shinobi gave a slight bow, and turned and left the Hokage's office. The Godaime Hokage sat alone in the silence for a few minutes before she finally opened up a drawer in her desk and withdrew a vanilla folder.

Closing the drawer the blonde Hokage opened the folder and spread the contents of the folder out upon her desk. It would only be moments now until Jiraiya arrived in her office, as she too sent a messenger out for him concerning the papers, and they would discuss them and what they meant.

The papers on the desk showed the detailed geography of all the land, and on the map near Amagakure, there were three villages that were circled with red ink.

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Naruto glanced around as he sat in the large tree, only one-hundred meters from the gates of Otogakure. Gathering a small amount of chakra, the blond placed chakra seal right on the branch he was sitting on before he turned his attention back towards the villages gates. After the blond shinobi accepted the mission, he wasted no time in traveling to his destination. Naruto mentally noted that the guards should have a shift change very soon, and that would be the best time to enter an enemy shinobi village. Simply because the guards' attention would be lax and they wouldn't want to deal with anything that would possibly lengthen their shift.

Tightening the bandana that hid all of his hair, and pulling up a mask that hid the lower half of his face, Naruto silently jumped out his hiding position on the tree and landed in the bushes just off to the side of the main road leading to Otogakure. After regaining himself Naruto left the cover of the bushes and slowly made his trek towards the gates of the village.

Approaching the gates to the village, Naruto could feel a handful of unseen eyes gaze upon him as he slowly trekked the path to the gates. 'They're probably used to seeing all kinds of people, especially from the crowd that Orochimaru draws in.' Naruto thought to himself as he prepared himself for the gate guards who were now standing up and readying themselves for him.

"Name and papers." The guard closest to Naruto had said. From Naruto's once over, the man was a high level chunin, and his companion seemed to be a middle level chunin.

"Suchi-Ru Yabun ," Naruto lied without hesitation, "and I have no papers."

The guard looked at Naruto with a blank face for a moment before he continued. "What is the purpose of your visit?"

"To find a safe place to stay for a couple of days before I continue to travel."

"How long do you plan on staying?" The guard continued to question.

"Approximately 4 days."

This answer seemed to satisfy the guard as he turned around and nodded towards the gates, which then started to open the gates to the village. Naruto watched the process in a bored manner, until he could start to see the inside of the village, and from there his attention kept growing at what he saw, and he became slightly anxious.

Upon entering the village known as Otogakure, Naruto was placed in a village of mild panic. People were hurrying, children were crying, and there wasn't a shinobi anywhere. These details sent the blond haired shinobi's nerves on edge as he began traversing the town with his brows knitted together.

The further he went into the village, the farther away he was from a known shinobi. The only shinobi Naruto had seen were the guards at the gate, and the unseen shinobi in the walls surrounding the village. Naruto stopped walking and looked all around him. The people of the village seemed to be in an excited state about something, but they didn't have any panic in their movements or body languages, letting the blond shinobi know that the village wasn't under attack.

Glancing around Naruto noticed a street bum sitting on the ground watching the crowd of people move, just as he was. The blond shinobi started making his way through crowd of people towards the bum so they could have a discussion about the state of the village.

"What is going on?" Naruto asked in a stern voice as he stood besides the sitting figure catching the homeless man by surprise.

"Eh?" The confused man asked as he looked up at Naruto.

"Why are the people like this?" Naruto asked specifying his question.

"Cause everything changed in one night." The bum explained with a smile on his face, not noticing the significant narrowing of Naruto's eyes.

"What changed in one night?" Naruto asked still in his even stern voice.

"Orochimaru's overpriced goods became really cheap all of a sudden, all of the ninja in the village haven't been seen since last night, and that prick Uchiha Sasuke is rumored to have gone missing or left the village or something." The bum said, causing Naruto's body to completely freeze for a second, before he looked over his shoulder and scanned the crowd once more.

"But why are the people acting like they're ready to riot?" Naruto asked as he turned his attention back to the bum.

The bum gave the blond a confused look before he answered the question. "Everyone's trying to buy as much as they can with prices this low, and people are panicking because family members that are ninja have just disappeared." The bum answered.

Naruto said a quick thank you, before he began walking amongst the crowd once again. The blond shinobi glanced all around himself before he started using chakra to enhance his senses and search for a clue as to where a shinobi might be. The blond shinobi continued to walk towards the center of the village searching for any sign of shinobi or large chakra sources.

'They've mobilized and gone on an attack, but who did they attack?' Naruto was thinking to himself as he started walking through the busiest place in the entire city before he suddenly stopped in the middle of the moving crowd. He felt the faintest remnants of two powerful chakra signatures, not identifiable, but definitely powerful.

Feeling for the origin of where the chakra signatures were coming from, Naruto felt them almost directly 30 or 40 feet below his feet. Looking around for close shack or house, Naruto found one. It appeared to be a two story house in the main market place. Naruto walked deliberately over to the house weaving expertly in and out of people in the crowd.

Once Naruto reached the house he moved to the alley between the house and a convenience store right next to it. Continuing down the alleyway, Naruto checked over his shoulder to make sure he wasn't being followed before he turned his attention back upon the alley he found himself in. A small window next to the ground at the base of the house caught the blonde's attention as he made a beeline directly for towards that.

'If this house has a window that close to the ground then the house has a basement, which will help hide me from any wandering eyes and it's closer to the chakra signatures underground.' Naruto thought as he tried to open the basement window from the outside, only to find that it was locked.

Glancing over his shoulder to ensure no one was watching him, the blond shinobi grabbed a kunai out of his holster and wacked the glass next to the lock quickly with the ring of the kunai. After silently cracking the glass, Naruto quickly pushed the glass inward and unlocked the window and lifted it so he could slide his body into the basement of the house.

Once the blond shinobi was inside the house he quietly shut the window and listened for any footsteps above him, or any sounds that would be near him. Silence. Turning his attention to the cement floor, the blond put the palm his right hand on the floor and sent out a chakra pulse, searching for any underground tunnels.

The blond shinobi felt one only 10 feet off to the side of his current position. Satisfied with the positioning of the tunnel, he started doing hand seals very quickly.

Finishing the jutsu, Naruto quietly spoke, "Tsuchi yokoana no jutsu." (Earth tunneling technique)

Naruto watched as his tunnel drilled itself into the concrete and started curving off towards the tunnel he was aiming for. Satisfied that his tunnel was complete, he held the tunnel open by holding the chakra, but glanced to the side and placed a chakra seal there before he dropped into his tunnel sliding into the darkness.

'The chakra seal could come in handy for a quick get-a-way hirashin.' Naruto thought as he plummeted downwards in the darkness of the tunnels.

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Naruto hid in the shadows as he silently made his way through the underground tunnels of Otogakure. There were occasionally a few shinobi that were running through the tunnels and Naruto had to use a few extreme stealth techniques to avoid detection. The blond shinobi kept an eye out for any high ranking shinobi, as they might know more about the attack plans than a lower rank would. But Naruto had yet to come across a high ranking shinobi.

The blond found a perfect interrogation room where he would take his unlucky victim once he found one. Slowly Naruto continued making his way around another corner, looking for a shinobi that might hold a key piece of information.

The blond had passed the place where the large chakra signatures had been, and found it to be a bedroom, there was a battle that took place with dark chakra. But there were no bodies left, only blood stains and a small portion of charred wood, which only confused the blond as he continued to maneuver through the tunnels.

Freezing Naruto heard someone approaching quickly; they were in a hurry. Crouching in the shadows the blond prepared to attack as the person had high chakra reserves, and carried themselves with very little noise.

'A jounin.' Naruto deduced as he waited in the shadows for the person to turn the corner.

Just as the enemy shinobi turned the corner, Naruto launched himself from the hiding place. Using the surprise as an advantage, the blond shinobi used an open palm thrust at the man's throat. Naruto's superior speed allowed the strike to connect, temporarily disabling the man's vocal chords.

Stunned from the sudden attack, the man didn't retaliate as Naruto brought his left foot into the air and struck down at the man's knee. The blond ignored the sound of bones breaking and the deep gasp from the man, as he fell to his other knee. Naruto, expecting this, swiftly struck at the man's head with his right knee. That strike also connected with the man's temple, and sent him sailing into the stone wall to their left face first and unconscious.

The entire exchange took less than 3 seconds, and barely made any noise, but Naruto stayed in a battle ready pose for an additional 5 seconds, half expecting someone to come and aid the downed man. When no one came, Naruto silently grabbed the man and threw him over his shoulder and quietly made his way to his make-shift interrogation room.

The man in Naruto's arms was going to give him answers whether he wanted to or not.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Tsunade looked around her office at the gathered shinobi council, and each of them returned her look. After noting that everyone present, even Kakashi, Tsunade decided to start the meeting.

"I thank all of you for being able to make it here on such short notice, but the matter as to which I called you here has great importance." Tsunade started, gaining everyone's attention in the room as she opened the vanilla folder on her desk and withdrew a map with red ink on it and three separate sheets of paper.

"Only 5 days ago a small village known as Supi-Ka, was attacked. We don't know what attacked yet, but we do know that there were no survivors or anyone left in the village at all. All traces of humanity vanished from the village completely." Tsunade said, and everyone in the room became deathly still as the Godaime Hokage continued.

"Then only a day after Supi-Ka was attacked, it's neighboring village, Hashigo, was also attacked. One day after that, another neighboring village, Kuruma, was attacked. These villages were in the same condition as Supi-Ka was, no survivors or bodies anywhere." Tsunade said before one of the shinobi council members interrupted her.

"How can there be no bodies or survivors out those two villages? There would be at least bodies somewhere, or evidence of a mass burning of bodies somewhere outside of the villages." Nara Shikaku stated as he leaned against the wall with his arms crossed.

Tsunade shook her head. "We don't know the specific details of the state of the villages or if any evidence was even found. We barely heard about these unfortunate events through a very reliable source." At this Tsunade glanced at Jiraiya who stood among the shinobi council near the back.

"Who is this source and how do we know we can trust them?" A man asked. Half of his face was covered with bandages while scars danced across his face, one of his eyes was wrapped. The man wore a traditional shirt that covered his arm, and atop that shirt he wore a cloak, resting only on his shoulders; his name was Danzo. He sat in one of the few chairs the office had to offer, and was also one of front row people.

Jiraiya answered the question for Tsunade. "The source is from one of my reliable spies, as many of you know I have set up an intricate spy network, and this person I have known for many years. As for their identity, I cannot reveal that to any of you, as it may compromise him."

A moment of silence adorned the office after Jiraiya's answer before another separate voice broke it. "The main concern is whether or not this information is a direct threat to Konoha." A woman said; she appeared to be older. She wore a traditional white over covering dress with a green outer coat, and had her gray hair pulled into a ball at the top of her head; she was Koharu Utatane, Hiruzen Sarutobi's old teammate, and she stood next to Danzo.

"As it stands right now, we have no idea if it a threat to us or not. We cannot tell if this pattern will continue with villages disappearing, but it would be best for everyone to be on guard just in case anything new happens with this development." Finishing Tsunade nodded to everyone in the room, formally dismissing them before she felt an incoming chakra signature, however small it was.

In that moment a small messenger mouse appeared in a puff of smoke on Tsunade's desk. The blonde Hokage looked the mouse over, it was 3 times the size of any normal mouse, but had a scroll attached to it's back by some sort of apparatus.

"Where's Jiraiya?" The small mouse asked Tsunade as soon as the smoke cleared.

"He's right in the back." Tsunade answered as she looked up to see Jiraiya maneuvering his way through the shinobi towards her desk.

Once he was there the mouse turned his attention to the white haired sannin. "It's an urgent message, they told me to get it to you right away." The mouse told Jiraiya as he unclasped the scroll from his back and handed it to Jiraiya.

Jiraiya accepted the small scroll, "Thank you Waiya, you can leave." With the dismissal, the small mouse disappeared in another puff of smoke before the white haired man unraveled the small scroll.

Tsunade became concerned while watching Jiraiya read the scroll. As the toad sannin read the scroll his brow furrowed and his jaw clenched before he looked Tsunade in the eyes. "Amagakure has joined the three other missing villages."

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Naruto sat on a bench in one of the overcrowded streets and watched all the people move by him in busy haste. The blond was in a shell shocked sort of state at the moment from the information he had gained from the Oto jounin. The three words that the tortured shinobi screamed were enough to almost cause a complete shut-down of Naruto's mind.

'Sasuke killed Orochimaru!'

Orochimaru was dead, despite his efforts to become immortal?

Uchiha Sasuke was powerful enough to kill Orochimaru?

Shaking his head as if to clear Naruto, stood up and started walking amongst the busied crowd. Now Kabuto was calling the shots for Otogakure, and he sent every active shinobi on a hunt for Sasuke. Frowning, the blond shinobi continued to contemplate everything he had learned in the past 20 minutes.

Naruto couldn't seem to grasp the fact that Sasuke had killed Orochimaru only days prior. 'There must be underlying factors as to what actually happened.' The blond shinobi thought as he moved down the crowded street. 'Sasuke probably had help, or Orochimaru was in a weakened state.'

These thoughts helped ease the blonde's thoughts as he suddenly shot off into one of the shops, and used the cover of the different rows of merchandise to use a shun shin. Once Naruto had reappeared on top of the shop's roof, he called forth some chakra and used a hirashin to go back to the tree outside of the village he had been sitting on. Once Naruto reappeared on the branch he took, going in a straight line towards Konoha.

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Uchiha Sasuke was not usually a person to be trifled with. He had earned the fear of people when they looked at him, he had earned the aura of power that followed him around. Sasuke wasn't however one to belittle himself, however hard it was not to for his deed he had committed a few days prior to today. Killing Orochimaru when he was on his death bed was not something the Uchiha survivor was particularly proud of.

Now, after Sasuke had arranged a specified team, he was heading out to destroy the only other person in the world that was an Uchiha. Sprinting through the forest Sasuke glanced at his team; Karin, the only female of the team, was a read head who wore brown glasses. Her hair was straight and combed on side of her head, and short and spiked on the other side. She wore a lavender long sleeve shirt, and short black shorts, and long black thigh stockings with shoes.

Suigetsu Hozuki was the first member of Sasuke's team that joined. He had white hair that had a blue tinge to it, and lavender eyes. He wore a matching lavender sleeveless shirt and gray pants, and he wore a belt that held two bottles of water and his Decapitating Carving Knife, and the basic shinobi sandals.

The Uchiha survivor then glanced at the last member of his team; Jugo. He had orange hair that is spiked back, and wore simple a black t-shirt with tan pants with the basic shinobi sandals. To complete his clothing ensemble he wore a simple blue cloak that covered most of his body when he stood still.

Looking back forward Sasuke concentrated on what he was heading off to do, until he was stopped by Karin.

"Sasuke." Karin said interrupting the silence that had overtaken the group as they traveled.

Looking at her from the corner of his eye, the Uchiha survivor let her know that he was listening to her.

"We should stop. There is a powerful person heading towards us at a fast rate." Karin said as she began to slow down, which in turn the team also slowed down.

Mentally frowning, Sasuke also slowed down his trek. "How far away from us are they?"

"Less than one minute." Karin said as her brows furrowed.

Suigetsu now was the one to speak as they came to a complete stop on the forest ground. "Were you not paying attention to let someone get so near without you knowing?"

The insult was pushed aside as she answered with a serious tone. "No, they are moving at a rapid speed. There is only one of them." As she said this she looked Sasuke in the eyes, "They are a jinchuuriki of a very powerful demon."

The only indication Sasuke showed that he even heard Karin was the miniscule narrowing of his eyes.

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Naruto flew through the trees as he ran, he was making a bee line straight for Konoha, but there seemed to be a small party of people waiting for him up ahead, so he decided to see what they were about.

Appearing in the clearing Naruto landed looking down, and in a crouch. Slowly standing Naruto began dusting himself off. "If you people would so kindly get out of my way, there won't be any problems here today." The blond said without looking at the people before him. He could tell that one of them was powerful, but the rest of them were merely pushovers.

"Baka." Sasuke's voice rang out through the clearing, causing Naruto to stop dusting himself off and look straight at the Uchiha survivor with a completely blank face.

"My teammates and sensei call me baka. But you're neither, so you may refer to me as Uzumaki." Naruto's cold voice sounded from across the field. The blond watched as the Uchiha shifted slightly across the field.

Naruto then smirked, "So Uchiha, did you have your henchmen here weaken the snake before you killed him?" Naruto was rewarded when his insult was met with the narrowing of Sasuke's eyes. The blond tensed his body as he prepared to launch himself at the Uchiha, but he was interrupted by red haired girl standing near Sasuke.

"Don't Sasuke, his chakra feels…powerful, more so than yours do." Naruto heard the girl say, and waited for a reply from Sasuke. When nothing came, the blond was on edge once more, before his danger senses were screaming at him to move from the spot he was standing.

Quickly moving his body off to the side, Naruto watched as the place he had been standing was ignited by electricity, from a lightning rod held in Sasuke's hand. Standing slowly Naruto watched as the electricity slowly died out from Sasuke's hand before he reached behind himself and grabbed his katana and unsheathed it, before he disappeared from Naruto's sight.

Moving quickly, Naruto reached into his holster and withdrew a kunai and brought it up to block an attack that was aimed to take his head off his shoulders. After blocking the attack Naruto used the kunai as leverage and pushed the katana over his head as he ducked his head under it and was within Sasuke's guard. In a lightning fast attack Naruto elbowed the Uchiha in the ribs and followed through with the strike to stab Sasuke with the Kunai in the chest.

This plan was thwarted when the Uchiha brought his other arm down and stopped Naruto's attack at his forearm. Using the physical contact Naruto pushed off Sasuke's arm and spun under the counter attack with the katana as he aimed a roundhouse kick aimed at the ribs. Utilizing the kunai in his hand Naruto flicked his wrist releasing the kunai as the back of his foot made contact with Sasuke's ribs.

The roundhouse kick pushed the Uchiha's opposite rib cage into the kunai, hearing the sound of kunai hitting flesh Naruto crouched and back flipped out of the area he was just in as it went up in flames from an unseen fire technique. Landing on his feet, Naruto looked across the way to see Sasuke cradling his rib-cage where he had been stabbed by the kunai, and his teammates surrounding him in a protective manner.

Naruto allowed himself to smirk confidently, causing the assembled shinobi before him some slight discomfort.

"What's so funny?" Suigetsu asked, "You're outnumbered 4 to 1."

Naruto didn't speak only let the smirk die off of his face before he disappeared in a bright flash of yellow and reappeared directly behind the only female of Sasuke's entourage with a haymaker punch aimed at the side of her head. The red head must have sensed the attack, but didn't have enough speed to dodge or block because the red head turned her head slightly just in time to see Naruto's punch connect with her right cheek sending her flying towards the back of Sasuke.

Naruto used the hirashin then to appear behind the orange haired shinobi and with a fast sweeping kick that took out both of Jugo's legs, Naruto then used another hirashin in quick succession to appear above the orange haired shinobi and used the back of his heel to drive straight downwards into the chest of the airborne shinobi.

Using the hirashin once again Naruto appeared inside Suigetsu's guard with his back towards his chest. The blond shinobi then struck backwards with his elbows aimed at Suigetsu's chest. Feeling the attacks connect, Naruto then used pure speed to spin around behind the white-haired teen and lashed out with a vicious spinning kick that connected with Suigetsu's spine.

After his offensive assault was complete Naruto back flipped out of immediate attack range as Sasuke's team recovered from the sudden attack. The blond shinobi noticed with a smirk that all of his attacks worked, as Sasuke and Karin stood up from the place on the ground. Jugo was slowly starting to stand up out of the slight crater his body made from the impact with the ground, while Suigetsu was recovering his breathe as it had been knocked out of him.

Naruto watched with some amusement as members of the group stood up. But the amusement was short lived as he felt a powerful chakra pulse from the group before them. The blond shinobi watched as Sasuke started using his curse seal and seemed to skip his first stage curse seal. Naruto lowered himself to the ground as he prepared to fight the new threat before he felt another powerful pulse of chakra.

Eyes wide with shock Naruto watched as Jugo started changing into a curse seal level 2 monster with what appeared to be boosters on his back and vicious looking claws on his hands and wide jaw with jagged teeth. This was unexpected.

Naruto tensed his body as he watched the two twisted figures stand and look directly at him. There was a moment of complete silence before Sasuke and Jugo disappeared in a rapid burst of speed.

The blond having only a second to react sensed rather than see Sasuke attacking horizontally with his katana. Ducking under the blade, Naruto was then met with a vicious and powerful punch to the chest as Jugo followed up Sasuke's attack, sending Naruto flying forward and under Sasuke.

Sasuke then struck at Naruto with his knee as he was still airborne. Naruto quickly brought up his forearms in an 'X' to block the attack. Sasuke's knee connected with Naruto's block sending the blond shinobi into the ground, only to ricochet back off the ground once he connected.

Naruto then twisted his body into the air to avoid another follow up attack by Jugo. As the blond brought his legs above his torso, Naruto had to tuck his head in towards his chest to avoid the kick that the orange haired shinobi had aimed at him.

Sasuke and Jugo flew past Naruto, allowing the blonde to land on his feet and recover from the assault. Quickly turning around Naruto focused on his chakra reserves as the Sasuke and Jugo continued their attack upon the blond.

Naruto watched as Jugo lead the attack this time, and dodged the spinning backhand that was aimed for his head. Releasing the chakra Naruto disappeared in flash of yellow while doing a series of hand seals.

Then the blond shinobi appeared behind Sasuke with a kick aimed at the black haired shinobi's back. Before the kick could connect, Sasuke had turned around and had blocked the kick with his hand that wasn't holding his sword.

Before Sasuke could counter attack Naruto disappeared in another flash of yellow, reappearing directly in between the curse seal duo. Sasuke quickly turned round and brought his katana in his hand around in another horizontal strike with him, aiming the strike at the blonde's neck.

As Sasuke was turning around Naruto had kicked Jugo in the chest, and used the orange haired shinobi's body as leverage to push himself into the air, sailing over Sasuke's attack. As Naruto was in the air though, Sasuke changed the direction of his katana attack, swinging it vertically now on a collision course with Naruto's abdomen.

Naruto sensing the attack spun his body out of the way as the attack missed his body. After the Uchiha's attack passed by Naruto's body, the blond used the momentum of his spinning body and aimed a kick at Sasuke's head.

As the attack connected with the Uchiha's head, Jugo attacked the still airborne Naruto; the orange haired shinobi brought his fist back, aiming for Naruto's face. The blond shinobi sensed the attack too late, but was able to slightly move his head to reduce the damage done from the attack. Jugo's attack sent Naruto through the air and on a collision course with the ground.

Once Naruto connected with the ground, the blonde's body was rolling and bouncing off the ground, with Sasuke and Jugo in his wake. Sasuke watching Naruto noticed a small flicker with his sharingan just before the still moving Naruto recovered and launched himself at Sasuke. Sasuke noted that the blond attacking him was a kage bunshin, but the Uchiha also noted that the clone had a fully developed rasengan in his hand and he was flying at him.

Acting upon instincts rather than thinking, Sasuke channeled the chakra for his chidori into his hand quickly. The chidori sprung to life in his hand and was ready to be used, just as the Naruto kage bunshin reached the Uchiha. Pushing his hand forward Sasuke met the rasengan head on with his chidori, expecting to win the battle within a moment. As the Sasuke and Naruto's kage bunshin battled, Sasuke then felt another incredible rise in chakra, and then another right afterwards.

"ARGHHHH!" Sasuke heard Jugo's twisted voice over to his side. Quickly glancing over he saw the remains of a powerful explosion, and Jugo's body flying in the air and through several trees before Jugo's body fell to the ground in an unmoving pile. The orange haired shinobi's body then started to regain his human traits as the twisted chakra receded from his body.

Using a small pulse of the curse seal chakra, Sasuke put more into his chidori than the kage bunshin could into its rasengan. As Sasuke's hand shot through the clone's body, the Uchiha's sharingan searched the clearing for any sign of the Naruto.

A change in the air pressure above Sasuke's head alerted the Uchiha as to where the blond was located. Bringing both his forearms up in an 'x' Sasuke blocked the downward kick from Naruto. The Uchiha didn't wait for Naruto to make another attack as Sasuke grabbed the heel of Naruto as he hung in the air, pushing chakra into his arms Sasuke then threw Naruto down at the ground with all his might.

Sasuke noted that as the blond was descending to the ground, he aimed a kick with his free leg at the Uchiha's face. Not having enough time to dodge Sasuke took the kick to the cheek as Naruto created a small crater from his impact into the ground. The kick sent Sasuke sprawling to the side at an alarming speed. The Uchiha was able to recover himself and landed upright in time to see Naruto standing up from his attack.

There was a moment of silence before Naruto's voice rang out through the clearing. "You took that kick to the face pretty hard. I guess you're not used to actually be fighting for yourself."

"It was a rudimentary attack that was lucky. I'd be more concerned about your spine and the damage creating that crater caused." Sasuke retorted coldly with his eyes narrowed.

Naruto slightly shook his head. "It's nothing to worry about."

There was another moment of silence before Sasuke bolted forward. Naruto spread his feet in preparation for the assault as Sasuke launched himself into the air mere feet before Naruto. The Uchiha lashed out with a kick aimed at the blonde's side, which the aforementioned blond blocked with his left arm. Sasuke used the arm as leverage and spun his body around in mid air and aimed his elbow at where Naruto's head had been.

Naruto ducked underneath the elbow and punched Sasuke in the ribs, causing the Uchiha to grimace in pain. Then Sasuke retaliated; bringing up his knee across his body, Sasuke attempted to hit the blond in the chin, but the blond moved to the side and avoided the knee.

This left Sasuke wide open attack as Naruto drew his fist back and aimed a punch straight for the Uchiha's face. Sasuke quickly brought his forearm underneath the punch and forced the punch to go over his head. Before Sasuke could do anything further though, Naruto's leg had connected with the back of the Uchiha causing Sasuke to arch his back exposing his chest. Naruto capitalized on this punched Sasuke square in the chest, sending in the direction of the punch at a high velocity.

Naruto then used his speed and pushed off the ground to follow the path of the Uchiha as he sailed backwards. Quickly catching up to Sasuke, Naruto spun twice backwards in the air gaining momentum as he spun, and struck at the Uchiha with the back of his heel after the second spin. The heel connected with Sasuke's chin giving the Uchiha even more speed as he flew through the air.

Sasuke hit the ground, and let his body roll on the ground a few times to kill off some speed before he came to a complete stop kneeling in front of Suigetsu and Karin, breathing heavily. Looking at the blond before him Sasuke could feel anger boil under his skin at being beat by his ex-comrade.

Still looking at Naruto, Sasuke noted that his head seemed to twitch and his gaze fell upon the forest behind them his attention momentarily off him. Sasuke's eyes never left the blond as he spoke, catching all three members of team snake off guard. "Well it looks like you're going have your hands full in a matter of moments, and I have somewhere to be right now. Until next time Sasuke-teme." Naruto said before he quickly turned around and vanished from the view of the three.

Sasuke looked at the spot where Naruto had been with a slight furrow of his brows and was about to go in pursuit of the blond before Karin's voice regained his attention. "Sasuke, there is a group of 60 shinobi converging on our current location. We need to leave this area right now, Kabuto's one of the closest ones ."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed dangerously, the fight with Naruto had alerted all the sound shinobi looking for him to their current whereabouts. Glancing at the two mobile members of his team, Sasuke moved quickly as he retrieved the unconscious form of Jugo, and broke into a fast sprint leaving the clearing they were in with Suigetsu and Karin hot on his heels.

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"So who exactly was that?" Suigetsu asked Sasuke quietly as they hid in a small alcove away from prying eyes, and in the center a very crowded forest.

The group had evaded every sound shinobi that had been looking for them, there were a few close calls but they made it out unscathed. The group had ran for many hours nonstop, and once they made it to the small alcove they currently were located in, they took extreme precautions as to not be found. Jugo was still unconscious, and Karin was tending to the orange haired shinobi as best as she could, while Suigetsu and Sasuke kept a wary lookout if anyone would stumble across their current hiding place.

Sasuke looked at the blue haired shinobi for a few moments before he answered. "Uzumaki Naruto, he used to be one of my teammates, but he has become more of a threat than I thought he would have ever become."

"Yeah he has. He was able to fight you and Jugo on even ground with both of you using your curse seal level two. No one should be able to do that." Suigetsu said in a hushed whisper.

Karin nodded silently besides Jugo, "We should avoid him at all costs in the future." The red haired kunoichi said, concerned for the team members' health.

Suigetsu agreed with her statement, but Sasuke remained silent. Sasuke knew that Naruto and he were going to fight again, but he was going to do everything within his power to help him win.

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A/N: Thank you for all of you that read and reviewed my premature version of this chapter, it was horrible. After I got your comments about Sasuke being hit by the rasenshuriken, I went back and reread what I wrote and felt ashamed. I fixed that part and now I explained why Naruto left. Before in the chapter Naruto kinda just disappeared, so this is hopefully a better version.

First of all I apologize for not coming out with this chapter sooner, but life started kicking my butt and I never really got around to writing the chapter, but this one took me a little time to write, and hopefully my next chapter will come out relatively quickly.


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